Flesh Memory
by SammyisGrace
Summary: Voldemort was defeated in 6th year, it's 7th year and McGonagall institutes a pen-pal system with a member of a different house starting it the summer before 7th year begins. Hermione enjoys writing with her mystery 'Damien', but views him as a question to answer. What happens when she figures him out? What about Harry and Ron and their pen-pals? Where does Hermione sneak off to?
1. In His Memory

**AN: This is AU in the sense that we are assuming that Harry defeated Voldemort in his sixth year, so now it's seventh year, everyone who died in the books is dead. Also, I'm American, so I will write and spell as such, my apologies if that annoys you. **

**AN: For reference for all future chapters: J.K. Rowling owns everything that you recognize. Anything I reference belongs to the person I reference. You recognize it, probably isn't mine. Thanks! **

Chapter1- In His Memory

_McGonagall was a lunatic. _That was the thought going through every student's mind as they read to her letter explaining the new program at Hogwarts. They had known that things would be different, without Dumbledore. Little did they know that McGonagall had a plan to keep his memory alive.

_Dear students,_

_Enclosed is the list of books you will need for the new year, as well as your typical Hogwarts letter, however, this additional letter has been included to inform you of a new program starting this year at Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore was always so eager to see great unity among the houses, so in honor of his memory we will be starting a pen-pal program. You will not know who you are writing to, and there will be a charm so that you cannot give any hints. You will just write to each other throughout the first semester and get to know one another. After Christmas break you will have the option to tell each other what house you are in, and see how that goes. Assuming you are able to overcome your differences, by Easter break you will have the option to tell one another your names. Hopefully you will learn something about a different house. _

_In a few days you will be receiving your pen-pal package. It will include paper charmed to mail itself to your pen-pal without you knowing who it is you are writing to. It will have the only quill you can use to write on this paper, charmed to prevent exposure before it is allowed. And it will have a list of suggested opening topics to include in your intro letter. Each kit will either have a one or two. If yours has a one, you write the first letter. If it has a two, wait for your pen-pal to write to you. You should start this summer, I will know if you have not started writing to each other by July. It is part of your graduation requirement. Enjoy!_

_ ~Headmistress McGonagall_

Everyone thought this was the stupidest idea ever. According to the letters sent to non-seventh years, they would receive a new pen-pal every year. Harsh. Hermione wasn't sure if this was really going to create any better unity than they had had in previous years, but it was a school assignment, so she was willing to participate and try to make it work.

"Did you get McGonagall's stupid letter about the pen-pal thing?" Hermione was at the Burrow sitting in the backyard with Harry and Ron. Ron was staring at them with huge, wide eyes, obviously distraught at the idea of the assignment.

"Yes, I'm kind of excited about it, aren't you?" She wasn't really all that excited, but she knew that if she didn't pretend to be excited than they would notice it and allow themselves to hate it. If she wanted to see them graduate she was going to have to help them out a bit, even if they didn't know what she was doing. She chuckled quietly to herself. She was honestly excited about one thing, she had gotten Head Girl, she figured she would leave that as a surprise for the boys, but she was super excited about it.

"Oh, um, yeah I guess. I just hope I don't get stuck with anyone boring, can you imagine that?" Harry was frowning as he said this, imagining writing back and forth with Millicent Bulstrode. They all laughed.

Their summer had been alright. They had relaxed, recovering from the big battle and all those lost in the war. The beginning of the summer was spent attending funerals, Tonks and Lupin's, Fred's, his had been the hardest. Ron had been so unwilling to show any emotion, for fear of showing too much emotion. He and Hermione were not together. They had kissed in the battle, but they had just been too much, it would never work out.

Harry was still in the process of coming to terms with the fact that all the deaths were not his fault. Voldemort would have killed more people if it weren't for him, not less. Finally coming out the other side, the trio was hoping to make their seventh year a happy year, they deserved it.

Two days after getting the letter, the pen-pal packages arrived. Harry's had a number one on it, Ron's had a number two, and Hermione's also had a number two. They all helped Harry write is first letter. Since he couldn't tell his pen-pal who he was, it was a general letter just saying hello, how has your summer been so far, etc. Once he had sealed the letter it disappeared.

"Well," Hermione said, "I guess once you seal it you better be sure you want it sent" she giggled at Harry's shocked face as he stared at his empty hands.

Ron got his first letter later that day. It sounded a lot like the letter Harry had written, pretty general. He replied with his answers and some questions of his own. Both boys seemed to find it a horrible chore, Hermione couldn't help but laugh at them.

It was three days before Hermione finally got her first letter. She didn't want it to be read aloud like the boys' had been, so she went out into the yard and sat under a tree by the make-shift quidditch pitch.

_Hey,_

_I don't really know what to write. I can't tell you anything about me nor ask anything about you, so I don't really get the point. This is stupid. I have to go to dinner with my parents. Just, write back if you think of anything we can actually say to one another. _

There was no signature, she had kind of expected it to be signed or addressed like Harry and Ron's had been, with some title like "Your Pen-Pal" or "Dear Pen Pal Person", anything. It was a bit abrupt and didn't follow any of the suggested prompts included in the kit. She stuck it in her pocket, figuring she would have to think about what to write.

Two days after receiving her letter she decided to answer it. She had to focus on having her best handwriting, since he wrote so elegantly, she used the cursive she had learned back in third grade.

Dear Pen-pal,

I think we need to have names for one another. We can make up something fun. I guess you can call me Grace. What would you like to be called? Also, there are so many things we can talk about. We can get to know each other. For example, what is your favorite color? Or, if you had to choose between sharing a room with the Giant Squid and sharing a room with an Acrumantula, which would you choose? This could be fun, getting to know everything about someone.

Sincerely,

Grace

Hermione sealed her letter and it disappeared, just as Harry and Ron's had. She then went to find the boys and see if they wanted to head to Diagon Alley to buy books.

The 'Golden Trio' went into Diagon Alley and immediately got swamped by people wanting to thank them for vanquishing he-who-must-not-be-named. They eventually decided to split up to different stores. Harry said he would buy their potions supplies, Ron had to go to Olivander's to get a new wand, his had snapped in the final battle, and Hermione said she would go buy their books.

As she wandered through Flourish and Blotts, a stack of books floating behind her, someone bumped into her from the side.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She turned as she spoke, coming face-to-face with Draco Malfoy. He had joined the right side in the end, but it didn't mean they didn't still think of him as bad person. The Ministry had found him guilty of being coerced by his family, putting his family in Azkaban, not Draco.

"Watch where you are going Granger." Hermione knew that it was he who had bumped into her, but the fact that he called her Granger rather than Mudblood was enough to keep her from pointing this out. "What are you trying to do Granger," Draco brought her attention back to him, "trying to buy out the whole store?" She noticed that he was looking at the large stack of books floating behind her.

"Harry, Ron and I split up. We were getting mobbed out there. I'm in charge of books." He looked surprised at her honest answer.

"Wow, the golden trio can't even shop for school supplies without being surrounded by adoring fans wanting to kiss their feet." He sneered as he said this and Hermione just nodded.

"Exactly, and it's annoying as hell" Draco looked up at this.

"Granger, you swear?" She laughed at his surprise, he looked angry at having her laugh at him; he took a menacing step closer to her. She didn't move.

"Yes, I swear. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to buy these books and somehow sneak out of Diagon Alley without being noticed." Draco just looked at her as she walked off towards the register.

He was standing by the door when she went to leave.

"What do you want Malfoy?" He smirked at that.

"I just thought that I should, like everyone else, repay you for all you have done for the world." She looked at him suspiciously.

"What are you talking about? You have never thanked anyone, ever." Draco laughed at her face.

"No, that's true. I don't really want to thank you," Hermione waited, curious as to what he really wanted. "I want in on your plan." She looked at him confused.

"What plan?"

"Whatever plan you have come up with to get out of here unseen."

"Why would you need to get out unseen?"

"Well, in case you have forgotten, since the Dark Lord lost, and my family was a bit infamous for supporting him, I'm not exactly popular at the moment." Hermione just looked at him. He scowled at her.

"Do people really give you trouble over it?" Draco looked away at that.

"Thanks to you three, everyone feels like they can best anyone who is 'dark', I bet if there are any Death Eaters left un-captured the public will get them, probably kill them too. They will stand up to anyone now." Hermione still looked skeptical. "Look," he really needed to get home in one piece, but he was under scrutiny from the government, even if he was free, so he couldn't risk getting in trouble for apparating without a license. "I've been egged, beaten up, hexed, you name it. I just want to get home in one piece. I will pay you to apparate me back to the manor."

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Draco Malfoy was no longer the bully, alright, maybe he still was, but he was also the bullied for a change. He needed her help. She didn't really want to help him, but he did look really pathetic, plus, it could come in handy to have Draco Malfoy owe her one.

"Fine, I'll get you home, but you will owe me one." He nodded his agreement as she grabbed his arm, not missing the fleeting look of disgust that crossed his face, and apparated them out of there. She remembered where Malfoy Manor was, unfortunately, having been tortured there during the war. She apparated them right in front of the door. Draco turned to look at her.

"Um…" He didn't really know what to say. He felt obliged to say something. "What a cup of tea before you go?" He didn't really know why he had asked. She was still Hermione Granger, one third of the golden trio. But she didn't treat him any differently than she had before. She hated him and he hated her, but it was based on him, not his family, and he missed that. Plus, with his family in Azkaban, he did not really have anyone to talk to and summer was getting lonely, not that he would ever admit that.

Hermione looked at him, confused.

"Why?"

"Blunt much?" Draco said it snarkily, but not angrily. "I was just asking. You did get me home, in one piece I might add." He looked away from her, like he didn't care what she decided.

But Hermione could see something else there, Malfoy was hiding something, and that made her curious. She had always hated the saying "curiosity killed the cat", because no one bothered to finish the saying, "and satisfaction brought it back". She was that cat, she always had been. So she just had to know why Draco Malfoy, of all people, was acting so oddly.

"Um, sure, why not?" Draco looked surprised, to say the least, but he opened the door and motioned for her to walk in.

"Bitsy!" As soon as the word left his mouth a small house-elf appeared at his elbow.

"What can Bitsy do for Master Malfoy?" Bitsy asked, clearly eager to serve. Hermione looked on disapprovingly, but Malfoy didn't notice. He turned to Hermione quickly.

"What type of tea do you like?"

"What do you have?"

"Everything."

"Peppermint then."

"Bitsy, could you bring a tray of snacks, a peppermint tea, and a…" he thought about it for a second, "forest berry tea to the blue parlor?" It did not escape Hermione's notice that while he didn't say please he didn't order her, he asked.

"Of course Master Malfoy, it is Bitsy's pleasure Master Malfoy." She disappeared to the kitchen. Draco walked off and Hermione figured she was supposed to follow him, so she did. By the time they got to the parlor Bitsy was already there, setting the tray on the coffee table. "Do you need anything else Master Malfoy?" Draco shook his head.

"Thanks, that will be all." Bitsy left again and Draco took a seat, motioning for Hermione to do the same. She stared at him for a few seconds before taking a seat on the couch across from him, watching him wearily.

"Malfoy, can I ask you something?" Draco looked up at her, passing her tea over the table. She took it, mumbling a 'thank you' for manner's sake.

"Uh, I guess. But don't expect me to answer if it's a stupid question Granger." She nodded.

"You were almost, nice, to your house-elf. You asked rather than ordered and you even said thanks. Why?" His eyes got a bit wider before he sat back with his tea. He contemplated what to say for a few minutes. Hermione sipped her tea in silence. She had to admit, the tea was delicious. Finally, Draco looked up.

"My house-elves are the only ones in this house with me. My entire family is in jail. What's the point in being rude; it only makes my tea arrive cold?" While he said it in such a way as to make it sound like no big deal, like he was doing it for himself, Hermione understood what he would never say. He needed friends; his house-elves were all he had. And just maybe, maybe he had only acted the way he had because of his family. Hermione wasn't sure she could believe that, but it was possible that the pressure from his family was the reason for who he was. With them out of the way, they might just get to see who the real Draco Malfoy was.

They sat in silence for a few minutes as they drank their tea and ate some snacks. Finally Draco spoke.

"Can I ask you a question in return?" Hermione nodded, surprised. "Why did you agree to bring me back, and then agree to tea? I know why I asked, I haven't fought with someone in so long, and you are such an easy target, but what's your excuse?" Again, Hermione caught the hidden meaning that Draco didn't even know he was saying, he needed someone to talk to. She thought about her answer briefly.

"I brought you back because I thought it might be useful to have you owing my one. I accepted your offer for tea because I was curious as to why you had offered." Draco seemed to accept these as normal answers, as he just continued to sip his tea. "So what's with your tea?" He looked at her, confused. "Forest Berries?" He laughed a bit. Hermione was astonished, it was a real laugh. She smiled a bit.

"Don't tell anyone. I love tea, of all flavors. I drink normal green and black and so on, but I also love strangely flavored ones. The best tea I ever found was a tea flavored just like raspberry shortcake. It was delicious!" Hermione laughed at him, hearing her laugh brought Draco back to reality and his scowl returned. "If you tell anyone I will make sure you regret it." This time he didn't use a joking voice. Hermione frowned, sick of Malfoy acting practically bi-polar.

"I won't. I think it's interesting. I've never really tried any tea outside of the normal and peppermint, as you can see. I will have to give some other flavors a try next time." Draco just nodded; his mood was back to being pissy. "Well, I should get going." As she said this she set her empty teacup back on the tray. She looked up at Draco, meeting his stare. "Thank you for the tea, that was very nice." She was being honest, she had enjoyed their talk. It felt good to talk to someone who you really didn't care how they took your words. Hermione spent too much of her time worrying about what other people thought and worrying about their feelings, it was nice not to care.

"Of course, I'll see you out; don't want the brightest witch of our age to get lost." He half smirked, half smiled. He did just that, walking beside her all the way to the door, opening it for her. "Goodbye Granger. If you ever want to bicker again, my door is always open." Hermione knew he meant it literally, he, like she had, had enjoyed talking without caring.

"I might take you up on that. Goodbye Malfoy." With that she turned on her heel and apparated to the Burrow.

"Hermione!" Harry and Ron came rushing out of the house. "Where have you been? Are you alright?" Hermione blinked at them. She had totally forgotten that they would be waiting for her. Oops.

"I'm fine." They stared at her, unsure. "First I had to find the books, get them all over to the line, there was a very long line, then I had to deal with the huge crowd wanting to talk to me, I couldn't just disapperate away, that would have been rude, so that took a while." She didn't really know why she was lying, it's not like she had gotten along with Malfoy, and they had both done what they did for purely selfish reasons. But she just didn't want to tell them the truth.

The boys seemed to accept her explanation, a look of dawning crossing their faces.

"Sorry Hermione," Harry said, "we forgot that you would have to deal with the crazier lines, neither store we went to was all that crazy." Ron nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, and trust you to be too nice, we just disapperated from the middle of the crowd, you are just too well mannered for your own good." The three of them laughed, Hermione a bit less sincerely. They walked back into the house together. Hermione went to put her books and supplies into her trunk in Ginny's room. She found a letter on her bed, it was from her pen-pal.

Dear Grace,

Sounds like a plan to me. Since we have to do this anyway we might as well try to enjoy it. My favorite color is dark blue. What about you? I would much rather share a room with an Acrumantula, less messy. But it would have to be a large room. If you had to choose between being extremely famous for something bad and being totally unknown to anyone for anything, which would you choose? You can call me Damien I guess, if we are picking names. How has your summer been, mine has been ok. Better today than it has been.

Sincerely,

Damien

Hermione smiled. Dark blue, what did that say about a person? At least she knew her pen-pal was a guy, which helped in terms of what topics to discuss. She sat down to quickly pen out a response before heading downstairs for dinner.

Dear Damien,

My favorite color is light purple, which is best when paired with black. Interesting choice in roommates. I would think that the Giant Squid would be a better roomy, since he would be less likely to eat you in your sleep, or even while you are awake. I would rather be unknown to anyone. Being famous isn't that important, whether the reason is good or bad. My summer has been alright, sad, as I'm sure everyone's has been, too many funerals for such a short time. What was good about today? What is your favorite animal? If you had to choose between listen to the same song everyday for the rest of your life and never hearing any music ever again, which would you choose?

Sincerely,

Grace

Hermione sealed her letter and let it disappear. Then she headed down to see if she could help Mrs. Weasley with the final touches on dinner.


	2. Sneaking Out and Starting School

Chapter 2- Sneaking Out And Starting School

**AN: Please read and review!**

Hermione and Damien had been getting along pretty well. Most of what they talked about had nothing to do with anything. Mostly just 'would you rather's and 'what's your favorite's. But Hermione was really starting to get the feeling that she knew Damien. What she didn't know was the unimportant stuff like house, name, blood-status, etc. She knew what even his friends might not know. She knew what he liked, didn't like, what his personality was like. She was starting to see why McGonagall had chosen to start the pen-pal program. Her most recent letter to Damien still sat on her desk, awaiting a reply.

Dear Grace,

I know exactly what you mean! But can you imagine what Peeves' face would have looked like if he saw something like that!? Anyway, onto more serious topics, I would always choose raspberry over strawberry, it is clearly the superior berry. The real question is would you choose chocolate or vanilla? You can tell a lot about a person from their answer to that question. I would rather bathe in peanut-butter than spend even just ten minutes with Filch. Would you rather be constantly followed around by a flock of owls or a single thestral? Hope your summer is still going well.

Sincerely,

Damien

But Damien wasn't the only person Hermione was communicating with throughout the rest of the summer. Ron and Harry were great; it wasn't like her friendship with them was getting any weaker, not at all. It was just that they were so busy all the time. Harry was dating Ginny, Ron was stressing out about them being together and stalking them all the time. They were both playing a lot a quidditch to prepare for the new season. And when they were with her everything was just so bloody perfect. She loved that she had such a great relationship with them, but after everything she had been through the past year, sometimes she just needed to get out her anger and frustration at the world, just get mad and stay mad, she needed to vent, so that she wouldn't do so to someone who didn't deserve it. She would never be able to forgive herself if she yelled at someone who didn't earn the yelling, just because she needed to be pissed at someone. So she fought, verbally, with Draco Malfoy.

For the last month and a half of summer Hermione somehow ended up showing up at Malfoy manner twice a week to fight with him. It was a mutually beneficial situation. They both dealt with problems, so it was nice to vent and be rude without worrying about the other person caring.

The first time Hermione had gone to see him had been a surprise for both of them. Hermione had spent the whole day before with Ron and Harry. They had played games and just hung out. It was fine, but the next day they went to play quidditch all day. She was glad, she had been so exhausted the day before, spending the whole day watching what she said so as not to bring up sensitive topics or make their happy conversation turn sour. But it was just so much work. And she wanted to be pissed at them for ditching her the very next day, but she couldn't. So she disapperated.

When she landed she realized where she had taken herself only when the door in front of her opened to reveal Draco Malfoy.

"Granger?" He was stunned. "What do you want?" It had been a week since their conversation.

"Well, you said if I wanted to bicker to come to you. Well I'm pissed and can't fight with Harry and Ron and I'm sick of watching my mouth to avoiding saying something that reminds someone of something sad, so I disapperated and I showed up here. I was hoping we could fight with each other over tea?" Draco laughed a bit at that.

"I could do with a good fight, come on in." Hermione walked in and followed him to the same parlor as before. Bitsy showed up immediately. "What tea would you like today?"

"What do you recommend? Since you know tea so well."

"I would say try pineapple. It is strange, but good." Hermione nodded. "Bitsy, please bring us snacks, a pineapple tea and a chocolate tea." Hermione was surprised, this time he had even used please. Bitsy nodded and left. "See," Draco turned to her, "house-elves don't fight with their masters, they just always agree, so I'm always placated, even when I'm sick of being placated!" Hermione understood.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I spend every second thinking about what I'm going to say because everyone has been so sensitive since the war that one wrong word and people get pissy or upset and storm off. I can't stand it! I just want to talk and be rude when I'm mad or just talk without thinking, but I can't, because everything that comes out of my mouth is a bloody reminder of something!" Her voice gave away the depth of her frustration. Draco laughed.

"Well, you certainly don't have to watch your words or language here. It is so refreshing to hear harsh words." He smirked. "Please, feel free to insult me every now and then, I would love to be called something other than Master Malfoy for a change." It was Hermione's turn to laugh, just as Bitsy showed up with their tea and snacks.

"Fine, and you may insult me if you choose, I think it might be nice to be able to get properly pissed at someone for once." She accepted her tea from Bitsy with a thanks, Draco did the same. They sat for a few minutes in silence, sipping their tea. "This is good, as you said, strange, definitely something different, but different isn't always a bad thing." She nodded as she spoke, enjoying her tea.

Over the next few hours they spoke about everything under the sun. They occasionally agreed, but then they would switch topics, finding something they disagreed about and fighting about it. Draco called her a "little know-it-all", a "mudblood", a "bloody female", among others. She called him a "ferret", a "pureblood arse", an "ignorant little toe-rag", among others. Neither really took the names to heart and both thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Six hours, four cups of tea, and an entire meal made out of snacks later, Hermione got up, saying she needed to get back. They said their very rude but happy goodbyes and she returned to the Burrow. She had never been so happy to have spent six hours arguing in her entire life.

The boys had finished practicing about an hour before she got back and had asked Mrs. Weasley where she was.

"She left about five hours ago. She didn't say where she was going and hasn't come back yet. But I wouldn't worry, she seemed to be going somewhere specific, since she apparated." The boys nodded and decided to play chess while they waited for Hermione to return.

Hermione walked in through the front door. "Hey guys, enjoying your game? Ron winning?" The two of them looked up at her and smiled. She was in a much better mood that she had been recently.

"Of course I'm winning, I always win." Ron beamed with pride until Harry elbowed him in the stomach.

"Where have you been? What did you do to make you so happy?" Harry looked at her inquisitively. Hermione blushed, making him more curious.

"Nothing, just went for a walk, wandered around, you know how it is." Harry wasn't buying it.

"For six hours? And why would that make you like this? I haven't seen you this happy all week. Were you with someone?" Ron looked up at this. He knew he and Hermione would never be together, but that didn't mean he didn't care who she was with. Hermione blushed again. Harry knew something was up.

"No, I was just wandering around. And yes for six hours. I went to a bookstore and bought a new book, found a café and read while drinking tea. Have you ever tried pineapple tea? It is very odd, but good." Hermione smiled at them, Harry seemed to want to believe her, but wasn't quite there yet.

"Then where is the book you bought?" Hermione didn't even hesitate.

"Well I finished it of course! I've been gone six hours. So I left it on a park bench downtown, I hope someone finds it and it makes them happy. It was a good book, as you can see it lifted my spirits." Harry seemed glad to hear this. Ron looked confused.

"You bought a book and then just left it on a park bench?" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Yes Ronald. It's so that someone can have their day made by finding a book waiting for them somewhere. I do it all the time. I leave them in airplanes all the time." Harry laughed at this.

"Air-whats?" Harry and Hermione laughed at this and Harry began to explain.

Was it bad that it was so easy to lie to them?

So it continued like that for the rest of the summer. Hermione had fun, silly conversations in her letters with Damien, asking and answering random questions. She had heated and angry spats with Malfoy about twice a week, always coming up with an excuse for her absence to the boys. And she had pleasant, calm conversations and days with Ron and Harry. The combination was ideal and she was blissfully happy for that second half of summer.

Harry and Ron still seemed a bit suspicious as to why she was always out for so long, but they just thought she was seeing someone, which she was, just not in the way they seemed to think she was. One night, after she had been out particularly long, Ron approached her.

"You know that if you ever want to just talk, you can, right?" Hermione just looked at him, unsure what he was talking about.

"Huh?" Ron blushed.

"I mean, if there is ever anything you wanted to tell us, or me or whatever, you can. We would never judge you or stop being friends with you or anything." Hermione got a bit worried.

"What exactly do you think I'm doing when I'm out?" Bluntness seemed to work with Malfoy, why not try it with Ron? And it worked.

"If you are out seeing some guy, we just would like to get to meet him. If you are worried won't accept who he is, or whatever, we don't care, we just want you to be happy." Hermione didn't say anything and Ron's mouth started to get carried away. "Even if, you know, you spend the night with him, you can still always come back, we will never turn you away." Still silence. "Or, even if it isn't a guy, if it's, um…a, um, a girl, we won't care. You are still our Hermione, no matter what." Hermione started to giggle. Ron turned scarlet.

"Relax. I'm not dating some guy, nor am I dating some girl, nor likely to ever date a girl. I have no problem with people who do, but I like guys. I just go on walks and think and people-watch and what not. I'm sorry if it's been worrying you, but I swear, I'm not hiding some secret boyfriend from you guys." Ron seemed to relax at that.

"But if you were…" Hermione cut him off.

"I know that I can always tell you, I trust you guys, I swear. Now, I'm totally exhausted, I'm going to bed. Night Ron." Ron seemed happy with that and they both went their separate ways to bed.

Eventually it was time to return to Hogwarts. Hermione packed up her trunk, helped the boys pack theirs, and rushed downstairs to pile into the car the Weasley's had rented, as they do every year. They reached the station with just ten minutes to go before the train would leave. They hugged their goodbye's and piled on the train. They found a free compartment and in piled Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville and Luna. It was the gang, together again.

"How was everyone's summer?" Hermione looked at Neville and Luna, since they were the only two she hadn't spent the summer with.

"It was alright. I had hoped to see some Nargles, but I missed them every time, so that was a bit disappointing." Everyone smiled, Luna never changed. Hermione turned her attention towards Neville. He smiled.

"It was good. I hung around with Seamus and Dean a lot, got me away from my Gran for a bit. Although she's much easier to be around now that she thinks of me as a war hero." Everyone laughed.

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione explained the gist of their joint summer. Soon it was time for Hermione to meet with the prefects in the Head's compartment. Ron and Ginny stood up just as Hermione was about to get up. Harry turned towards them.

"Where are you two heading?" Ron grinned.

"Prefect duties. We have to go meet with the Head Girl and Boy." Harry looked confused.

"Ginny, you are a prefect?" She smiled.

"Yep, I guess I forgot to mention it this summer, but I got the badge in my letter. I'm so excited for my first prefect meeting, Ron we should go, we don't want to get in trouble with the Heads for being late to our first meeting." She started tugging on Ron's sleeve. Hermione stood up smiling.

"I don't think you will have to worry about that." Harry turned his attention to her.

"You are a prefect too?" Hermione shook her head.

"No, I am Head Girl. But Ginny is right, we should leave. I don't want to start off on the wrong foot with the Head Boy for being late." They left and went to the Head's compartment, it was already mostly full. Hermione went to the front as Ron and Ginny took their seats. It seemed that the Head Boy wasn't even there yet.

"Well, hello everyone! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. I'm so glad to see you all here, except the Head Boy that is. Does anyone know who the Head Boy is this year?" Everyone shook their heads and Hermione continued with their first meeting. Halfway through the meeting the compartment door opened and in walked Draco Malfoy.

"Malfoy, how kind of you to finally join us." Her tone was icy as she glared at him. She looked at the table. Blaise was sitting there. "Wait, you and Blaise can't both be seventh year Slytherin boy prefects, one of you needs to leave." Draco smirked.

"No Granger, I'm not a prefect." Hermione smiled triumphantly and turned back to the group. "I'm Head Boy." She whipped back around.

"What!?" He just nodded and took his seat at the head of the table. Hermione was dumbstruck. She just nodded numbly and continued with the meeting. Once it was over all the prefects left. Ron and Ginny hung back, waiting for Hermione. She walked over to them.

"Hey guys, I need to talk to Malfoy, if we are going to be Heads we need to at least be civil, go on back. I'll come back once I'm done. Thanks." They nodded, though Ron looked weary. They went back to their compartment at the end of the train. Hermione turned to see Malfoy sitting lazily in his chair, not having moved, with his feet propped up on the table. Hermione sat down.

"So…" Draco looked at her. "You made Head Boy." He smirked.

"Very observant of you Granger, it's no wonder they say you are the brightest." She laughed a bit at that. "Why did you never mention being Head Girl? I thought you would have been bursting to tell the whole world your latest accomplishment." Hermione frowned at that.

"No, I knew that people would know once we got to school, so why break the news any sooner than necessary? It's just added responsibility, expectations, attention, etc. I'm not really the type that craves that kind of stuff, no matter what you might think." Draco seemed to actually think about that. "Why didn't you mention being Head Boy? It's a great accomplishment, coming off of your rocking last year or so, and entire past come to think of it." She smiled.

"It's not really important to me. I think the old woman is crazy to think that this is a good idea, but I'm not going to turn down the extra privileges." Hermione laughed at that.

"I like that to me it is responsibility and expectations while to you it's privileges. Typical." Draco grinned.

"What would I be if I weren't me?" She laughed again.

"You are such a ferret."

"Know-it-all."

"Prick."

"Bookworm."

"Jerk."

"Smarty-farty."

"Smarty-farty? Really, you couldn't come up with anything better than that? You are such a loser." With that she gave him a quick smile before leaving the compartment and heading back to her own. Draco smiled too, he would have to work on his insults if he was going to properly vent his frustrations without repeating himself.

When Hermione returned to her compartment everyone looked up at her.

"So what did you and Malfoy talk about?"

"Oh, um, just trying to get along this year, at least when other people are around, since we are supposed to set a good example. I also asked him to try to set a better example next time by not showing up late." She smiled, they had sort of talked about the first part, kind of. Harry spoke up.

"Well that makes sense in theory, but this is Malfoy we are talking about, I'm not so sure he's capable of following even such simple instructions." Everyone in the compartment laughed and the rest of the ride to the castle was completely normal.


	3. School and Plans

Chapter 3- School and Plans

**AN: Please read and review!**

The first years were sorted and the feast was eaten, Hermione felt a bit nostalgic, knowing it was her last opening feast, her last sorting, unless she became a professor, she still wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She would never admit it, but she cried just a little bit as the Rebecca Zur went to sit at the Hufflepuff table. Soon the feast was over, Ron had managed to eat even more disgustingly than usual, if that was even possible. Afterwards Hermione instructed the prefects to lead the new students to the dorms while she went to meet with the headmistress. When she got to the entrance to McGonagall's office she noticed Malfoy waiting for her there.

"What are you waiting for?" She looked at him curiously. He scowled.

"I don't have the password, do you?" Hermione shook her head. But then it seemed that they didn't need a password, because the statue turned and the staircase revealed itself.

"I guess it just need both of us to be here." They headed up the stairs. Draco knocked on the door at the top, and upon hearing "enter" from inside; he opened the door and held it open while Hermione entered. She thanked him quietly as they both took their seats. McGonagall turned away from her place looking out the window and took a seat.

"So, I called you two up here to talk about you two being Head's together this year." They nodded. "I expect you two to get along, at least when other students or teachers are around you. I know you can. I expect nothing less than civility. Now, the tradition of a Head's dorm ended a few years ago when two students abused the privilege, but I am reinstating the Head's common room. It will be a space you two will share where you can go to work on homework, Head's duties, etc. I expect that you will not take advantage of this room. It is to be shared, I will not hear about one of you monopolizing the space. Is this all understood?" Hermione responded immediately.

"Of course Headmistress." Draco nodded his agreement. McGonagall seemed satisfied.

"Well, then you two may go, but I must implore you, try to really get along." She looked them each in the eyes. "I think that if you two really get to know one another, I think you will find you are more alike than you think." She smiled as the two students got up and left her office.

"So what did the Professor McGonagall want with you and Malfoy?" Hermione had just gotten back to the Gryffindor common room, where Ron and Harry were waiting for her.

"Oh, just to threaten us to behave and try and be civil." The boys laughed at that.

"What did she threaten you with?" Ron looked at her curiously.

"It was more of an unspecified, 'or else' kind of threat." They all smiled, knowing how scary Professor McGonagall could be when she wanted to.

Hermione hadn't really seen Draco since their talk with McGonagall. She had, however, gotten her first letter from Damien since coming to Hogwarts. It appeared in her lap while she was in the Gryffindor common room.

"Is that from your pen-pal?" Ron asked her from his place playing wizard's chess with Harry.

"Yeah, I'll just head upstairs; I don't have my special kit with me." That was a lie, it was in her bag, but it just felt awkward to read her letters from Damien when she was with Harry and Ron. As far as she knew, they had hit it off pretty well with their pen-pals too. Come to think of it, she should probably ask them about it more, she didn't really know how that was going.

Dear Grace,

So, school's started again. That's always fun. haha. Though I will admit, it gives me something to do, which is nice. I was kind of bored over the summer, didn't really have a purpose. In answer to your previous questions, I would much rather only be able to whisper than only be able to shout, whispering is seductive, shouting is not. And my favorite potion to brew is Amortentia- who wouldn't love smelling the smell that most appeals to you? If you had to lose the ability of one of your senses for the rest of your life, which would you choose? And what is your favorite location in all of Hogwarts? Hope school is treating you well.

Sincerely,

Damien

Hermione quickly penned her reply and returned to the common room.

"How is you pen-pal?" Harry looked at her as she sat down on the couch.

"Good, we are still getting along, asking each other questions." Ron snorted at that.

"You guys must have asked each other every question in the book by now." Hermione smiled at that.

"I've been meaning to ask you two, how has it been going with your pen-pals, you never really talk about it and I never thought to ask?" The boys exchanged looks. Harry spoke for the both of them, obviously they had talked to each other about it.

"We are both clearly exchanging letters with girls. They write like such girls. It's not too bad, but girls can be so annoying sometimes, you know?" Hermione was kind of insulted. She knew that the boys were like brothers to her, but sometimes she really wondered whether they saw her as a sister, or as a _brother. _

"Well, I don't know if you two have noticed, but _**I **_am a girl. I write like a girl, talk like a girl, do everything like a girl, because **I am a girl.**__So I'm sorry if I don't join you in your annoyance with my gender." With that she stalked off. She went to the owlry. She really needed to send a letter. She quickly got out her quill and a spare bit of parchment, she called over her owl and tied a quick note to his leg. She watched as Henry, her owl, flew off with her note.

Hermione was on edge the whole next day. She wasn't talking to Ron and Harry, and it seemed that she had shocked them enough that they weren't ready to talk to her either.

Draco watched as an owl flew towards him at breakfast that morning. Who in the world would be writing to him, his pen-pals letters always just appeared. He untied the note and the owl flew away immediately, not waiting for a reply. It was simple.

**Malfoy,**

**I just blew up at my mates, I need an alternative way to blow off steam, please meet me in our common room tonight at eight. **

**Hermione. **

He was glad she had made the first move. He couldn't look like he needed the mudblood for anything, but he too needed to vent. He was back at school, hanging with Blaise and Pansy. It was great to see his friends again, but they didn't get it, they hadn't even been involved in the war. They had been safe at home while their parents supported the wrong side; he had been forcefully thrust into the middle of it all. So he couldn't really talk to them about it.

Just like Hermione, Draco spent the whole day on edge, but for different reasons. She was worried he wouldn't show, he was excited about the prospects of getting pissed at someone and having it be ok. Plus, he had gotten a letter from his pen-pal, and he always enjoyed those, though he'd never tell anyone that, he even spent most nights complaining about it to his housemates.

Eight o'clock rolled around and Hermione was sitting in the Head's common room reading a book. She wasn't sure if he would show, but she sincerely hoped so. At eight fifteen she was almost going to leave, but she didn't want to deal with Harry and Ron, so she just snuggled deeper into the couch and kept reading. At eight thirty Draco strolled in. His eyes lit up when he saw her sitting on the couch.

"Good, you're still here, I worried you would have left." Hermione glared at him.

"You are a bloody half hour late! I almost did leave, but I have every right to be here and didn't want to face my wanker mates, so I decided to stay. You are such a prick. You have no respect for anyone but yourself, you are selfish, I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up married to yourself, or a mirror maybe, you self-absorbed jerk." Hermione huffed, it felt good to get that all off of her chest. Draco grinned.

"Why thank you! And I'll have you know, I almost showed up at eight, but I figured that showing up late would piss you off and give you a chance to rant, which is why we are here isn't it? So I was just being utterly unselfish and very not self-absorbed. So ha! You are wrong! Little miss know-it-all is wrong!" He laughed, glad to yell at someone, or, rather, not to yell, more to be snarky and sarcastic and not get them mad at him for it. Hermione was grinning at him.

"Well, I thank you for the consideration, but you were being selfish, you knew I'd blow up and then you could point that out and blow off your own steam, you love being right so much that you set it up for me to be wrong, so I still stand by all of my previous statements, so HA!" They stared at each other for a few seconds before they both burst into hysterical laughter. Draco was, unfortunately, the only one of them that was standing, so eventually he was laughing so hard that his knees gave out and he fell to the ground. He just lay down and kept laughing.

Eventually they calmed down and got back to bickering. They got an elf to bring them up some snacks at Hermione ordered herself a pumpkin tea while Draco asked for cinnamon tea. They stayed like that for the next three hours, just pissing each other off. In the end they did a bit of planning as heads, and then they went their separate ways, returning to their common rooms and their oppressive lives.

This pattern repeated itself over the next few weeks. Like in the summer the two started off by meeting around twice a week to fight. This eventually had to change.

"Hey Granger…" They were sitting in their common room after fighting for an hour or two. They were about to start work on the Halloween party when Draco spoke up.

"Yeah?" His voice had sounded nervous almost, hesitant, so naturally Hermione was intrigued.

"I was wondering, well, we've kind of fallen into the same pattern from over the summer." That wasn't a question, so Hermione just raised her eyebrows at him inquisitively. "School isn't like summer. In the summer I was alone and only had my house elf calling me Master Malfoy all day, but here, here I interact with so many other people all day."

Hermione was surprised to find that she was hurt. She was pretty sure he was going to say that he no longer needed to vent and tell her that he was going to stop coming. She thought that she wouldn't care, but she did. In a weird, kind of screwed up way, she enjoyed her evenings with Malfoy, she was sad that they were ending.

But they weren't. "I find it so much more frustrating than in the summer. I get closer and closer to blowing up each day between our meetings, sometimes I don't make it, I explode. And even when I do make it, it's so stressful and tense each other day that it makes it less fun to be in school. So I was wondering if we could make this daily. Just come here after dinner, vent, if it becomes too time consuming we could do homework while pissing each other off, but I can't meet just twice a week, the idiots in this school drive me up the wall every day." Hermione surprised herself again when she breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing him say that. She gave him a shy smile.

"I think that sounds perfect. I totally agree. I spent all my time with Harry and Ron over the summer, but I didn't realize how much harder it was once there were that many more people. Entering the common room is tough, even the mutterings under my breath insult someone. I would love to vent every day." Draco smiled. Then they noticed that they were having some kind of moment and they both coughed before moving on to talking about Halloween.

So they started meeting every day after dinner. The boys asked where it was she went all the time, but she just gave vague answers. Sometimes she told them that she went on a walk to let out the stresses of the day, which was at least half true, she was letting out stress. Sometimes she said that she was meeting with Malfoy to do heads stuff, which was also part true. Most of the time she just shrugged.

Draco had been right. With the increased time commitment to venting they needed to get some of their work done during that time if they wanted to remain the top two students in their year. But, since they were the top two students, they had all the same classes and were both good at all subjects, so doing homework together was never a hassle. They began to help each other without even realizing it.

"No, it's two, not three lacewing flies." Hermione pointed to the place where Draco had written the wrong value of the ingredient. She didn't say it rudely, like she did everything else that they said to one another, rather, absentmindedly as she worked on her own potions essay.

"Oh, right. And it has the potential side effect of boils if it isn't heated hot enough, don't forget." Hermione nodded, scribbling that down.

They still fought, all the time, but they needed to get it done and it didn't help anyone to do it separately when they were working on the same homework.

Hermione had been in a good mood the past week or so. She had been venting every evening with Malfoy, and she had been exchanging letters multiple times a day with Damien. She went to her room that Friday after dinner, having gotten a letter during dinner, deciding to reply quickly before heading down to meet Malfoy.

Dear Damien,

I got your last letter during dinner, scared the crap out of me to have it appear in my lap while I was eating. I would have to say that I would rather never be able to express my true feelings than always say everything that I think, but that's a tough one. My favorite season is Autumn, I can't believe we had never asked that before. I love to see the leaves change color. What is your favorite day of the week? Would you rather be physically stuck to your enemy for the rest of your life, or never be able to touch the person you love? Hope your day ends well! Have an awesome weekend!

Sincerely,

Grace

She sealed her letter and it disappeared. She then quickly made her way down to the common room. Draco was already there. He was reading a letter.

"Hey" he nodded his head at her, silently saying 'hey' too. Then he looked up.

"Just reading a letter from my pen-pal. I'll respond latter. You look positively atrocious today, like a total pig." Hermione smiled.

"And you look like you always do, spoiled, egotistical, and like a total prat." Draco smiled back and they started their usual banter.

Of course, Draco and Hermione did actually plan stuff during their evenings together, and soon enough it was October. They had agreed to have the Great Hall decorated with pumpkins, but no straw or hay, people were always allergic. They had Indian corn and gourds along with the typical pumpkins. They decided to have a small event, to get everyone in the Halloween spirit.

They pinned the announcement on every house bulletin board.

**Pumpkin Carving Contest!**

**On Saturday, October 15****th**

**Epic house competition and the winner gets house points**

**In the Great Hall at 2pm(there will be food and drinks)**

**Be there. **

They worked hard to get Hagrid to agree to donating his pumpkin patch so they would have pumpkins to carve, they had to talk to McGonagall about the utensils used to carve them, since they didn't want to provide Slytherins and Gryffindors with too sharp of objects when they were together being competitive. They had decorated the hall, talked to the elves about themed food and beverages: obviously pumpkin juice was perfect for the occasion, along with pumpkin pie, pumpkin bagels with pumpkin crème cheese, pumpkin lattes, along with other non-pumpkin items.

The event finally came. Hermione was a bit nervous. It was their first event as heads; she wanted everyone to enjoy themselves. She told the boys that she would meet them there; she wanted to be the first one there, to make sure everything was perfect. She wasn't the first one there.

"Malfoy," she was surprised, to say the least. "You're here rather early. What's up?" He turned around to look at her.

"I just wanted to make sure everything was set and ready." She smiled, having had the same intentions. "Besides, if I'm going to win the competition I need the extra time to scope out the very best pumpkin." He smirked at her as she shook her head.

"You know you can't do that, who would be judge with me. We need to be unbiased judges, which is why there needs to be one judge from each house. I thought I would represent Gryffindor, you would represent Slytherin, I asked Hannah Abbot to represent Hufflepuff, and Cho Chang to represent Ravenclaw. I figured that way it would be most fair." Draco hadn't known that she had planned that, but it made sense. "Though, if you really want to compete I could always give the honorary position of judge to Blaise Zabini, he seems like a good kid." Draco snorted at that.

"No, I'll do it. No one else in my house would even consider working with you and the other two, you are lucky I'm so nice." It was Hermione's turn to snort. "Hey," Draco mocked being offended. "I can be nice when I want to be." Hermione gave him a skeptical look.

"More like when it is convenient for you to be. I would like to see you try to be nice to everyone, even for just one day."

"Is that a bet? Or a dare?" Hermione laughed.

"No, then you would do it, and then I would not only be proven wrong, but I would have had to endure a whole day of nice Malfoy, I think I would be sick before the day ended." They laughed. McGonagall came in just then. She frowned a bit at their laughter, thinking something must be up.

"What's going on here?" They stopped laughing and looked at her.

"We were just making sure everything was ready for the competition" Draco told her smoothly. "We procured one judge from each house, with Granger and I representing our houses." McGonagall frowned.

"Her name is Hermione you know." Both students just looked at her.

"Professor, I call him Malfoy, it's no big deal, first names would just be weird." She seemed to accept that. "Well, it's about to start, so I guess we should officially open the doors." She smiled as she and Draco each grabbed one of the two large doors to the Great Hall. "One, two, three" they pushed them open, letting in the students who were already gathered outside.


	4. Pumpkins

Chapter 4- Pumpkins

**AN: Please read and review, thanks!**

As students entered the Great Hall they filed over to the tables in the middle of the room. Lining the room were individual stations set up for someone to carve a pumpkin, and at the front, where the teachers usually sat, were the pumpkins. Directly down the center of the room was the buffet table that held snacks and drinks. Soon the room was filled with students and Hermione and Draco made their way to the front of the room to address the crowd.

"Hello everyone. Can I have your attention please?" Everyone quieted down and turned to look at Hermione where she stood next to Draco, trying to be heard. "I need to get an accurate count of how many people plan to actually compete in the competition. If you plan to carve a pumpkin please send a magical paper airplane up here, try not to hit anyone. If you are just here to eat food and watch, or to judge, that it fine, just don't sent an airplane." They did as they were told and Draco tallied up the planes, some of which were not so successful in their flights, as they came nowhere near Draco, flying all over the place. Draco ended up just "accio"ing the planes, not wanting to go around picking them up. Luckily they had enough pumpkins and enough individual pumpkins. Draco turned to the crowd.

"To be fair, we will come around and those of you competing will put a slip of paper with your name on it in this bag. We will then randomly draw names and in that order you will choose your pumpkins. You will not be judged because the pumpkin itself, so don't be discouraged if you are last to pick your pumpkin. The rest of you can sit back and enjoy the competition." Hermione then went around one half of the room while Draco went around the second half. They came together in the middle and combined their bags into one. Hermione drew the first name.

"Seamus Finnegan, please go up to pick your pumpkin, then take a seat at one of the carrels around the room, but do not begin to work just yet." Seamus did as he was told. Draco drew the next name. He frowned.

"Weasley, go pick a pumpkin and sit down." Hermione gave him a disapproving look at his tone. Clearly there were multiple Weasley's, but everyone knew from his tone that he meant Ron.

"Blaise Zabini, you may go up."

"Potter, go."

"Terry Boot, you can go up."

"Michael Corner."

"Ginny Weasley, you may go up."

"Susan Bones."

"Justin Finch-Fletchley, go ahead."

"Theodore Nott."

"Gregory Goyle, go ahead."

It went on for a while, mostly guys, but a few girls did decide to participate, for the most part they didn't want to deal with the mess and getting it under their finger nails.

Once they had gone through all the names they announced the judges. Hermione faced the crowd.

"To ensure that this competition is as fair as possible, we decided to have four judges, one from each house, and we will all try to agree on the winners. For Hufflepuff house we have Hannah Abbot," the Hufflepuff's cheered loudly. "For Ravenclaw we have Cho Chang." The Ravenclaws cheered too. "For Slytherin we have Draco Malfoy." Slytherin's cheered louder than the other two houses had, Draco smirked. "And I will be judging for Gryffindor house." The Gryffindors were louder than all the others, because, naturally they had to best Slytherin at everything. Draco spoke up.

"Now, on the count of three you can start carving. We put a spell on the room, no magic can be used, you will be carving it by hand, to test your skill, rather than just your imagination. One…" Everyone around the room grabbed whatever tool they planned to use first, getting ready. "Two…" They leaned toward their pumpkins eagerly. "Three." There was a frenzy as everyone started working.

Hermione started a stop watch, saying, "now, you will have two hours to complete your pumpkin, so that should be plenty of time. Have fun!"

Half way through Hermione wandered around the room, looking at what people were doing with their pumpkins. She saw what looked like it might turn out to be a wolf, howling at the moon. Someone was clearly carving Voldemort, which she found a bit insensitive. Someone else seemed to be carving the muggle idea of a witch. Harry was doing a quidditch scene, typical. She looked at the last carrel before she reached the front, she stopped in shock.

She knew who she would be voting for, assuming no one surprised her after what she had just seen. Sitting in the front-most carrel was Blaise Zabini. He was so focused, Hermione didn't think he even noticed her standing there, staring at him. He was bent over his pumpkin as he delicately continued to carve, using a variety of tools to make textures, and cuts of various sizes. The detail was impeccable. Blaise Zabini was carving Hogwarts. It was beautiful. Hermione had to tear her eyes away from it and move on. When she reached the front again she approached Draco.

"Malfoy," She spoke a bit quietly, not that the room wasn't loud, because it was, but she didn't want to talk too loudly, for fear of disturbing the contestants. Draco turned to look at her, expectant. "I had no idea that Zabini was so talented, did you? He is quite the artist." Draco blinked at her, obviously not expecting her to willingly compliment one of his friends.

"He's always been really into art, so yeah, I guess I knew, why, what's he doing?" Hermione smiled, remembering how beautiful it was, even in its unfinished form.

"He is carving Hogwarts, it is amazing! It is, by far, the most beautiful pumpkin carving I have ever seen! If things go the way they seem, I would not be able to justify wanting anyone else to win, even if he is a Slytherin." Draco smiled.

"Well, I'm glad to see your prejudices will not be getting in the way of this competition. I'm also glad that Blaise has decided to be ambitious, he doesn't always show his creative and artistic side, it's hardly very Slytherin of him." Hermione laughed a bit uncomfortably, she felt like Malfoy was telling her personal details about Zabini, like she shouldn't know that. She shrugged it off and went to see her friends.

"Hey Luna!" Luna turned to Hermione, smiling. "Are you enjoying yourself?" Luna nodded emphatically.

"I am very much enjoying myself. This is a lovely event you have planned. The carvings look very promising. Additionally, you have selected a wonderful array of snacks, the desserts are great." Hermione grinned; Luna had a terrible sweet tooth.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that you approve. I should wander around, but I hope you stick around for the announcement of the winner, I think it will come as quite a shock." She smirked as she walked off.

Eventually the time was up.

"Would everyone please return to their seats. Contestants, please sign your pumpkins and leave them where they are, we will move them to the front as necessary." As everyone hurried to do as Hermione had asked them, Hermione moved to the front to meet up with Draco, Hannah, and Cho. "The other three judges and I will now examine all the pumpkins and take notes, we will then talk amongst ourselves to decide a winner. After we are done looking at each pumpkin it will be moved up to the front of the room where you may see it more closely if you wish. Feel free to continue to eat and drink while we do this." She, Cho, Hannah, and Draco then began to walk around the room.

By far, Zabini out shone all the others. Hermione also found that Ginny's was really good. She had done a carving of a hippogriff, flying over a lake; it was very serene. Neville had done the candy-trolley; it was pretty good. Finally, Michael Corner had done a carving of a spider web with a fly caught in it and a spider about to eat it; it was traditional, but pretty good.

When they were done going around to see the pumpkins, the judges went into a corner, conjured a table and chairs, and caste a muffliato charm around them.

"So, first we will decide who gets first, since that is easiest to decide." Hermione began, Draco looked smug. "Hannah, which pumpkin did you believe was the best?" Hannah bit her lip, eyes unsure.

"I couldn't read the signature, so hopefully someone else knows who the pumpkin belonged to, but I thought the one of Hogwarts was by far the best one I saw." Draco smirked.

"Cho," Hermione continued, ignoring Draco. "Which did you like the most?"

"I agree with Hannah, the one of Hogwarts showed the most skill and the best eye for detail, it was beautiful." Hermione nodded at her and turned to Draco.

"Malfoy, I assume that you agree with these two?" Draco just nodded. Hermione smiled, much to Draco's surprise. "Well, that was easy. We all agree that Blaise Zabini's pumpkin carving of Hogwarts was the best, so he gets first place. Who do we think should get second?" Hannah and Cho looked at Hermione with wide eyes.

"Blaise Zabini did that pumpkin? Are you sure?" Cho was the one to ask, looking at Hermione inquisitively. Hermione nodded.

"I'm sure, I saw him carving it. Now, who did you like second most?"

It turned out it was pretty easy. Everyone agreed on who the best four were, it was just a matter of who got third and who got fourth. In the end they managed to agree and they removed the muffliato charm and vanished the table and chairs. Hermione thanked Hannah and Cho and asked them to please take a seat with the other students.

"We will now announce the winners of the pumpkin carving contest. If you are one of the winners, please remain after everyone else leaves so that you can get your prize. We will only be announcing first, second, third, and fourth place, we did not rank the entries beyond that point, so please do not ask what place you got if you don't win." Everyone resumed their seats as Hermione spoke. One of the younger Slytherin boys shouted out.

"And how much bias did you put into your winners? You have three judges from houses that hate Slytherins and only one boy. Who wants to bet that Granger favors her friends?" The Slytherins all sniggered, except Draco. Hermione was frowning and her face was hot with anger. But Draco beat her to it.

"As much as I love my own house, for once, you are wrong. The judging was very much unbiased, by all parties, and I must say, I believe it took a turn in our favor, so kindly shut up." Hermione gave him a confused half smile, thanking him for standing up for her in a way. "Now, we will start with fourth place." Draco turned to Hermione expectantly, and so did everyone else.

"In fourth place we have Neville Longbottom with his portrayal of the sweets trolley from the train." Gryffindors clapped the loudest, but Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs clapped too. Hermione turned towards Draco, everyone fell silent again and looked at Draco.

"In third place we have Michael Corner, with his carving of a spider web, complete with a spider about to eat a fly." Again, everyone except for the Slytherins cheered. When silence resumed Hermione spoke up.

"In second place we have Ginny Weasley, with her beautiful carving of a hippogriff flying over a lake." Gryffindors cheered loudly again, along with the other two participatory houses. Soon the whole room was jittery, wanting to hear who won. Slytherins were looking a bit pissed, not winning anything. Draco spoke up.

"And last but certainly not least. I am very proud to announce that the first place winner of the pumpkin carving contest is my best mate Blaise Zabini for his detailed carving of Hogwarts castle." The Slytherins cheered like they had won the house cup, though the other houses joined in politely. Blaise was blushing, his face as red as a tomato. Hermione interrupted the cheering.

"Congrats to everyone who participated. Unfortunately it is time for all of us to go to bed. I ask that the four students that won please remain behind to claim your prizes. As for the rest of you," she gave them a stern look, "please go straight to bed, no dilly dallying, I wouldn't want the professors to get mad and not let us run any more events like this, I thought it was fun, didn't you?" Everyone cheered, the Slytherins just barely clapping. "Well, then we wouldn't want to lose that privilege now would we?" She smiled as the students began to file out, Blaise, Ginny, Neville and Michael staying behind. Draco approached Blaise, clapping him on the back.

"Well done mate, didn't know you had it in you to finally let all your talent out." They grinned at each other.

"Well," Blaise said, "I guess the war changed us all." They both nodded, solemn for a second, before grinning again. Hermione turned to Ginny, giving her a hug.

"Congrats, I was so glad when everyone said they liked your second best! Yours was so good." Ginny smiled at her.

"Thanks, I'm glad you thought so, though I was surprised to hear that I lost to Zabini, a bit of a shock there. Did Malfoy have something to do with that?" Blaise and Draco seemed to have heard and Blaise was red again while Draco was about to yell at Ginny, but Hermione didn't even notice any of that as she shook her head.

"No. I actually knew he was going to win before we even did our walk around. I had seen his while it was only half way finished and it was already exquisite, so I just knew. I don't know why he's been hiding his talent, but no one can just wake up one day and carve like that, it was unbelievable. If you haven't already you really need to take a closer look at it, I'm stunned. Hannah and Cho voted for it without even knowing who carved it, there was no doubt in our minds." Ginny nodded, understanding. Hermione turned to the group.

"Well, let's get this over with so we can all get to bed. We have small prizes for you all. Malfoy?" Hermione turned to him and he rummaged around in a bag he had in his hand.

"For fourth place, we have a five galleon gift certificate for The Three Broomsticks." He handed that to Neville, who looked pleased.

"For third place," Hermione continued, "we have a seven galleon gift certificate for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes." Hermione handed that to Michael, noting the mischievous look in his eyes.

"For second place," Draco said, "we have a ten galleon gift certificate to Madame Malkin's." Ginny grinned as Draco gave it to her, Madame Malkin's sold more than just robes, she sold all kinds of clothing, just what Ginny wanted.

"And for first place," Hermione took the last prize from Draco, "we have one twenty galleon gift certificate redeemable at any and all Hogsmede locations." She passed that over to Blaise with a smile, who seemed surprised by her kindness. "Congrats to you all, I am so proud and pleased with the wonderful pumpkin designs you all created." She then shooed them all to their dormitories as she and Draco went to clean up the Great Hall quickly before heading off to bed.

"So, you really weren't mad that Blaise won and not one of your group, like Potter or Weasel?" Hermione sighed.

"I know this may be hard for you to comprehend Malfoy, but I am not a bad person. My personal feelings about a person are never fixed, they are flexible and they change all the time. Zabini isn't a bad guy. He didn't really fight on Voldemort's side, which earns him bonus points. He may not have always been the nicest guy to me, but part of that was that he was just a kid, growing up, puberty and all that. Besides, I fully believe in second chances. And I don't have to like him to admit that he is wildly talented artistically." Draco just stared at her for a bit, surprised at the level of fairness she was willing to extend to someone like Blaise Zabini. Then he smirked.

"Does that mean that you think the same about me? That it was just growing up and that I'm not that bad of a guy?" Hermione frowned.

"I guess, I mean, you were on the wrong side, but you did switch to the good side in the end. You haven't really been your same bullying self since. I mean, you say the same things, but we both know when and why that happens, so I guess my opinion of you could change, if it hasn't already."

Draco was shocked at her honest answer, he had honestly expected her to say that he could never change and she would hate him forever, or something like that. But this was Hermione Granger, honest and fair Gryffindor, not afraid to be truthful. Draco just shook his head and focused on cleaning up the Great Hall.

They worked silently for about half an hour, even with magic. It wasn't an awkward silence, rather a silence when they had nothing to say to one another, so they didn't. Once they were finished they walked out of the hall together. They continued on their rounds, making sure everyone actually went to bed, before going their separate ways and heading to their dormitories. They didn't say goodnight or anything friendly, but before they split paths they did look at one another, looking into the other person's eyes, and then nodded their heads before going on their ways to their separate dorms.


	5. Getting Closer

Chapter 5- Getting Closer

**AN: Please read and review!**

Hermione woke the day after the pumpkin carving contest to find a letter on her nightstand. She picked it up, reading it as she walked to her trunk to find an outfit for the day.

Dear Grace,

Did you go to the pumpkin carving contest? I did, it was so cool. Some of the pumpkins were really amazingly carved. My favorite holiday would have to be Easter. I know. Usually people say Christmas, but I prefer chocolate and candy to presents. I have the biggest sweet tooth. It's a serious problem. I can't even begin to tell you the number of times I've snuck down to the kitchens here at Hogwarts just to get something sweet, I can't be seen devouring the entire dessert selection at dinner now can I? I would rather be caught wearing pink underwear than be caught shaving my legs(not that I do either by the way) haha. What do you consider to be the most useful spell you have learned and why? Additionally, on a sillier note, paper or plastic? Hope you are enjoying your favorite season.

Sincerely,

Damien

Hermione couldn't help but smile at that, he remembered that she had told him she loved Autumn, for some reason that made her really happy. She grinned to herself as she set the letter on her bed and began to get dressed. She decided to reply before heading down to breakfast, since she already had the answers and new questions in her head.

Dear Damien,

I can't believe you remembered that I love Autumn, you actually pay attention, haha, that's more than I can say for many of my guy friends. I did go to the pumpkin carving contest, I totally agree, it was awesome. I wish I had such talent. I, too, love going to the kitchens, though I usually go for hot chocolate and pickles. Yeah, weird combination, I know. The most useful spell I've ever learned is probably scourgify. I find that if someone is having a bad day, myself included, they tend to make a mess, but that's the one day they least want to clean, so it's super useful. Besides, I hate messes, I like order and organization, so that spell is my best friend. haha. I know it isn't environmentally friendly and all, but I always would pick plastic. The paper doesn't have handles, and it rips so easily, it's just a hassle I'm never willing to deal with just to save the environment, especially since the bags are already made, so my not taking them won't unmake them. Anyway, ignore my nonsensical rant. What is the one thing you would experience or do before you die? Which do you prefer, cauldron cakes or pumpkin pasties? By the way, I just realized that while it's called a pen pal program, it's really a quill pall program, haha, funny right? Maybe I'm crazy, it's early. Ignore me. Have a good day.

Sincerely,

Grace

Hermione was slightly embarrassed by her clumsy letter. She considered burning it and writing a new one, but she refrained, putting it in an envelope and sealing it. As it disappeared Hermione contemplated the feeling in her chest. Why had it been so difficult to write that letter? It wasn't like she was talking to him, and even if she was why would she ramble and stumble over her words? She utterly confused herself. Putting those questions off for later Hermione headed down for breakfast.

Everyone seemed to be gushing about the contest, having enjoyed it. Hermione was very pleased with the response it had gotten. She had an idea, but she needed to talk it over with Draco. She wrote him a quick note, sending directly over to where she could see him sitting at the Slytherin table eating his toast. It nudged his hand, she knew he would have been pissed had it hit him in the head or something. He looked up, meeting her eyes, before opening the note.

**Malfoy,**

**I've got an idea, need to talk to you, Head Girl to Head Boy. Meet in the common room tonight an hour earlier than usual. See you then. **

**Hermione**

He looked up at her again, nodding his head at her to indicate his intended compliance. She nodded back and went back to her breakfast. The boys were staring at her quizzically.

"What?" They looked between her and Draco.

"What was that whole communication between you and Malfoy, are you two friends or something?" Hermione laughed at the look on Ron's face as he asked that.

"Goodness no, I just had an idea, inspired by the success of the event last night, so I need to go over it with him, since he is Head Boy, so I asked him to meet me in the Heads' common room tonight to talk about it. I can't tell you what it is; I want it to be a surprise if we get permission." The boys relaxed at that, glad she hadn't gone off her rocker. She wasn't even lying to them, just omitting that they met every night.

That night she only had to wait a few minutes before Draco showed up. She was sitting on the couch with some parchment spread out in front of her, outline her idea. He came over once he spotted her and sat next to her, closer than they usually sat. She looked up from where she was writing a few last minute ideas.

"So, what did you need to talk about? You said you had an idea." Hermione nodded.

"Yeah. I got inspired by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the event last night. My pen-pal was raving about it, and I agree. It went really well and everyone seemed to be getting along better than usual. I felt like there was less inter-house hostility. Don't you?" Draco nodded as well.

"I know, my pen-pal person enjoyed it too. How did this inspire you?" Hermione looked a bit nervous.

"Well, I don't know what you'll think, but I was thinking that we could plan monthly events, McGonagall would allow them I'm sure, as she's so keen on house unity, with the whole pen-pal business. We could offer fun events once a month, like the pumpkin carving contest, and I think everyone would enjoy them. Before you make a decision, I outlined some potential ideas for events. Like, next month, for November, we could theme it around fall, which is another word for autumn. We could have chocolate waterfalls, like chocolate fountains except on a larger scale. We could have the staircase turned into a giant slide so people could "fall" down the stairs, maybe even have mattresses for them to surf down on. We could have a spin the bottle game called "Fall in love". And I'm sure we could come up with more stuff. For December we could have a winter and Christmas themed one. I'm sure I could come up with fun stuff to do for that…"

Draco put his hand over Hermione's mouth. They were both shocked that he was actually touching her. He quickly removed his hand.

"Would you just shut up for a second? I think it's a good idea. The pumpkin thing was fun and people think better of Slytherins because of it. I think we should definitely plan some more, so just chill and calmly explain to me the plans you've already made and I'll see how I can help. We can go talk to the Headmistress tomorrow."

They began to work on a more comprehensive outline, having at least a few ideas down for every month of school. When they were finished they had their traditional bickering session.

Hermione called Draco a "stupid pureblood fanatic", an "egotistical poop-face", and a "ridiculous bouncing ferret", Draco got the tiniest bit legit upset about the last one. Hermione got called a "useless public burden", a "nerdy mudblood", and a "waste of magical ability".

While Hermione had heard it all before, she found she much preferred 'mudblood' than having herself described as a 'waste of magical ability', that one hit a bit too close to home. They both left that night a bit more pissed off than they had come. Hermione wasn't entirely sure that she wasn't a bit hurt. But why would she be hurt, she reasoned, Malfoy was always like that and always would be.

The next day the boys asked Hermione how her meeting with Malfoy went and she was able to put real venom into her voice when she said, "fantastic", her voice dripping with sarcasm. The boys consoled her, telling her that Malfoy was just a jerk and they were so sorry that she had to work with him.

Hermione knew that they were right, but she had gotten to a sort of civil level with Malfoy and she felt more than a bit hurt that he didn't know what lines not to cross. But then again, she reasoned, the whole point of their sessions was that there weren't supposed to be any lines, they weren't supposed to have to look out for the hidden mines of polite conversation. She figured she was just being silly, the reason she fought with him was so that they could say whatever came to their minds, no regard for the other person's feelings. She just didn't realize that 'waste of magical ability' was something that honestly 'came to mind' when Malfoy thought about her.

They got permission from the headmistress the next day. Hermione wasn't entirely sure whether she really wanted to meet up with Malfoy that night, but she figured, if she didn't, then she would probably just end up shouting at her friends. She decided to go, but she did show up a few minutes late, just to piss him off.

"You're late." Malfoy was sitting in a chair by the fire.

"Very observant of you Malfoy, yes, I am." Malfoy sneered at her.

"Why are you late?" Hermione sat down in one of the other chairs as house elves showed up with some tea and snacks.

"I don't owe you an explanation, that's my business."

"Well, aren't we pissy today?" It was Hermione's turn to sneer.

"Isn't that what these meetings are all about, being pissy and needing to vent?"

"Well, I had thought we had moved passed that a bit to having pleasant conversation first, but I guess not." It was weird to hear Malfoy actually sounding a bit sincere.

"You mean to say that you find conversation with me, a mudblood, pleasant?" Malfoy gave her a deadly glare.

"Usually, yes, but tonight, not so much. Besides, if you bothered to pay attention you would know that I never call anyone mudblood anymore outside of our venting." Hermione thought about it for a second before realizing he was telling the truth.

"Wow Malfoy, I never thought I would see the day when you would grow up. I'm impressed. And if it helps, I also find our conversations strangely pleasant usually." Malfoy nodded in her direction.

"So, what's with the attitude tonight, what happened? Something with Potty and Weasel?" Hermione frowned at the names but ignored it.

"Uh, no, not really. I just, well, it, um" Hermione paused for a second to collect her thoughts and form a sentence. "It is kind of an ongoing internal battle." Malfoy looked curious.

"Want to talk about it? I'd love to learn what goes on in that big brain of yours?"

"Um, not really, I don't think you'd really like to know." This only made Malfoy even more interested.

"Now you have to tell me, I swear I won't judge, or freak out, or whatever you are afraid I will do, even if this is you admitting your unbearable love for me, since I already know that." Hermione laughed out loud at that.

"Yeah, that's right Malfoy, I'm in love with you. Not. Jeez, you couldn't be a bit more self-centered could you?" Malfoy smiled, Hermione saw Malfoy smile! But then it was gone, replaced by a sneer again.

"I could, if you really need me to be, we could just talk about me all evening."

"No! Definitely not. Fine, I'll tell you, but you promised, not judging." Malfoy nodded his agreement to the terms. "Well, I know we said that these sessions had no rules and that we could say whatever because we don't care what the other says and all, and we said that it was the one place where there was no stress of saying the wrong thing."

"Yeah, so what, get on with it." Hermione gave Malfoy a glare.

"Well, I know all that, and I reason with myself that I have to keep up my half of that bargain and all, but I couldn't help it." She looked down at her hands, not wanting to admit that, somehow, Malfoy had actually hurt her.

"Couldn't help what, Granger, I don't read minds?" Keeping her eyes on her hands she continued.

"I couldn't help but be genuinely angry and, well, and hurt" Hermione cringed as she said the word, saying it quieter than the rest of the sentence, "at the idea of being a waste of magical ability. I'm fine with mudblood and all that, because I don't really care what people think about that, but I like to think that I've done good with my magic, that I've earned it. I don't know. It's stupid, so I've been arguing with myself that I'm not supposed to care and that it's just you, so what does it matter, but, alas, my brain and my emotions are at odds with one another."

There was silence for a while, Hermione refusing to look up and Malfoy thinking. Finally, Malfoy spoke.

"Well, I'm not going to apologize, because that is exactly what we are supposed to do, shout everything and anything, regardless of how rude or untrue it might be. But if it helps, most of what I say is just for the sake of saying mean things to anyone and aren't what I really think nor would I say them if I was able to say the things I really want to say meanly to other people." When he first started speaking Hermione had been about to yell at him, but the rest of his little speech got her thinking. Was he saying that he didn't honestly think that? She had to ask, even if it was pushing it.

"Are you trying to say that you don't honestly think magic is wasted on me? Not muggleborns in general, but me particularly." Hermione didn't want to appear weak, so she stopped looking at her hands and turned to look at the fire instead, her face hard.

"Of course not. I may not like you, but I'm not second in the class for nothing. I'm not stupid, and you would have to be stupid not to see that you do more with your magic than most purebloods. It's natural to you in a way I once thought it could only be for purebloods. I don't have to like you as a person to appreciate your use of magic." Malfoy seemed almost surprised at what he had said, but Hermione was glad he said it.

"Well, the feeling is mutual. I may dislike you a great deal, but you are the only person in this school who challenges me academically, and I appreciate that." Malfoy nodded, understanding the underlying messages in that statement. He smirked a bit as he next spoke.

"But you are still a know-it-all with freaks for friends, just so you know." Hermione smiled at that.

"Yep, just as you are still a disgusting little snake with idiot cronies." They both began to drink their tea as they again slipped into their easy conversation, both pleasant and relaxing as they insulted with no more fear of honestly offending the other person.

November passed relatively smoothly after that. They did have a fall get-together to increase inter-house bonding. It wasn't as big a success as the pumpkin carving, but it was good. Hermione had more important things on her mind. She had been pleased that Damien had found her weird, too-early-to-think-properly letter funny and cute. She had been irrationally nervous sending it off, but it worked out. Their conversations had turned in a bit of a different direction since then. They still asked questions and answered them, but there was definitely a distinct undertone. If Hermione didn't know that it was impossible for any boy to do so, even not knowing who she was, she would have thought he was flirting. His questions were certainly unusual, at least compared to how they had started.

Damien's most recent letter had asked her whether she tended to have guy friends or girl friends and what her favorite gift she had ever received was. The whole tone just seemed to hint at flirtation, but Hermione could not be sure and she certainly wasn't very good at flirting, even through letters.

Harry and Ron, last Hermione had checked, had gone a similar root. They both seemed to be getting along really well with their pen pals, Ron a bit better than Harry actually.

Hermione realized how little time she was spending with her friends, as she tried to avoid them mostly and hung out with Malfoy. Ashamed, Hermione sent Malfoy a note one evening in the middle of November.

**Malfoy,**

**I know we had a meeting tonight, I apologize, but I can't make it. Let's reschedule for tomorrow night. Thanks.**

**~Hermione**

Hermione hoped he would get the hidden message and not be mad. She enjoyed venting with Malfoy, but she didn't really need to vent, she hadn't spent enough time with her friends to need to vent, so she planned to spend the evening with her friends. She got her reply speedily enough.

**Granger,**

**That is acceptable. Tomorrow in the common room, usual time. **

**-Draco Malfoy**

Harry and Ron look over at what she was holding, Hermione put it away, though not quickly enough to raise too much suspicion.

"What was that Hermione?" Harry asked. "It seemed to come from the Slytherin table." Hermione smiled at him.

"It did. It was from Malfoy. We were supposed to meet to discuss Head's stuff tonight, but I cancelled on him. He was just letting me know we would push it to tomorrow. I feel like I haven't seen you guys in forever. I was hoping we could just hang out tonight, the three of us." They agreed, admitting to missing her a bit.

They agreed to use the Room of Requirement to hang out, planning to meet around seven or so. Pleased with the plan, Hermione managed to spend the rest of the day just focusing on what she wanted to do that evening with her friends.


	6. Fun with Friends

Chapter 6-Fun with Friends

**AN: Please read and review! Thanks!**

Hermione arrived first to the room of requirement. She paced in front of it and, when the door appeared, she entered. It was a cozy set up. There was a fire place that already had a nice fire burning, two large arm chairs and a couch in between. It looked very similar to the common room that she and Malfoy shared. She called a house elf and had them bring her a peppermint hot chocolate. Tea was something she really only drank with Malfoy. Strangely enough, she felt a bit like if she drank tea with Harry and Ron it would kind of be like cheating on her 'friendship' like thing she had going with Malfoy. She tried not to analyze that too closely.

Right after the elf brought Hermione her hot chocolate, topped with a mound of whipped cream, the boys arrived. Hermione had claimed one of the large arm chairs and Harry did the same; Ron stretched out on the couch.

"Hey, where did you get a drink? These rooms can't produce food, can they?" Hermione was torn between amusement that Ron really never stopped thinking about food and astonishment that he actually remembered their discussion about the properties of magic in relation to production of items.

"No Ron, it can't. I got a house elf to make me some in the kitchen and bring it up here. I can call them back if you want something, they are very accommodating."Harry and Ron just kind of gaped at her. "What's wrong?"

Harry spoke next. "Who are you and what have you done with Hermione?" Hermione glared at harry a bit.

"What are you talking about?"

Ron jumped in next. "What happened to spew and all that nonsense? Have you suddenly decided house elves don't need freedom?" Hermione huffed a bit at that and sipped her hot chocolate.

"It was S.P.E.W., and I still think that house elves should be able to have freedom if they want it, but most don't and I realize that. I think there should be strict laws about fair treatment of house elves, to ensure they are not abused. The ones that work here are clearly treated very well, so I feel no qualms about allowing them to serve me, they clearly enjoy it." To stave off further arguments that would make her long to be with Malfoy, Hermione called one of the house elves and turned to the boys when the house elf arrived. "What do you guys want, we may be here a while." The boys ordered their drinks and some snacks and, once that all arrived, they settled back to enjoy the evening.

"So," Harry was the first to break the silence. "What did you want to talk about? I mean, I'm happy we're doing this and we really haven't seen enough of each other this year, but I'm sure you had a specific topic in mind when you thought this up." Hermione smiled at him.

"You were right to think that. I was thinking about my pen pal and realized that I have no idea how that has been going for you two." Surprisingly, both boys blushed a bit at that. Hermione was intrigued. "Hey, what's with the blushing? What have you two been keeping from me?" That time Ron responded first.

"Well, my pen pal and I got off to a bit of a rocky start. She's a girl, and she can be really rude. We didn't really get along all that well. They she sort of accepted that we were stuck with each other, admitted that I wasn't that bad to talk to, so to speak, and we are doing much better. It's weird, I know I don't really know her, since we only write letters and stuff, but I really like her. She can be really interesting, but, and don't get all insulted Hermione," Hermione looked at him curiously. "But I like that I can tell she isn't freakishly smart like you. I'm not smart enough for you sometimes, it's nice that she is on my level. So yeah, I'm really hoping to get a good surprise once we are allowed to tell each other who we really are." Hermione couldn't help the grin that nearly broke her face.

"Aww! Ron, that is so cute! I am so happy for you; I'm glad that you found someone that you like. This is great!" Ron turned even redder at that, looking at Harry for help.

"Well, I have a slightly different history with my pen pal. She is a bit off. I mean, she's not crazy or anything, she's no Luna Lovegood, but sometimes she doesn't make sense. She started off making practically no sense and for a while I thought I might actually be writing to Luna. But I guess I had satisfactory responses because a few weeks ago she dropped the pretenses and started to actually talk to me. She's really cool, and unlike Ron's girl, she's really smart and I think it's great. We talk about everything. Like Ron, I really like her. I hope she's as awesome in real life." Hermione frowned a bit. "What, you can be happy that Ron might have found someone but not me?" Hermione shook her head at him, a bit apologetically.

"No, that's not it at all. I'm very happy for you; you deserve someone good, after everything you've been through. I was just thinking. Ron likes his girl, you like your girl, and I think I might, maybe, have a bit of a crush on my guy. It seems like the Headmistress is running more of a dating service than a pen pal program aimed at inter-house unity." The boys laughed a bit at that.

"So," Ron said, "you like your guy?" Hermione smiled.

"Yeah, I think I do. I mean, we hit it off right from the start, no rocky beginning like you guys had. We became good friends really quickly. But lately, I don't know, I swear he's flirting with me. It's hard to tell, I don't really have much experience with this kind of thing, but it's a lot like Krum was in fourth year, only in writing." The boys nodded, Ron frowning at the thought of Krum. "But I don't know, I don't really flirt back, I'm not sure how. I've been thinking of asking Ginny to help me write my next response." Ron's head shot up.

"And what does my baby sister have to do with this?!" Hermione pretty much laughed in his face.

"Come on Ron, even you have to know that Ginny is quite the flirt. She's not a slut, she just knows how to get a guys attention, and I think, well, I think I want to do that. So yeah, that's the plan."

The boys agreed that it was a logical plan and the three of them spent the rest of the evening catching up, talking about everything and anything, and just enjoying each other's company. Hermione found that she wasn't really filtering too much anymore. Enough time had passed since the war that it didn't seem as much like every topic hinted at reminders of the war. It wasn't like everything she said was insulting or insensitive in some way. Of course, this didn't mean she was going to stop meeting with Malfoy. She couldn't quite put her finger on why, but she wasn't eager to stop spending time with Malfoy any time soon.

Things seemed to pick up after that. She and her pen pal were getting along. Ginny had helped her to subtly flirt with him through the letters and according to Ginny, who Hermione let read some of her letters, he was definitely flirting back. Hermione was getting along better with Harry and Ron, having realized that it had gotten easier. She could talk to them with minimal frustration, not that she was going to tell that to Malfoy. After skipping that one meeting they still continued to meet regularly.

They fought less and spent more time just talking. Not about anything of consequence, just chit-chat. Nonetheless, Hermione really thought they might be becoming friends, even if it was both reluctantly and secretly. After their most recent 'meeting', they had even parted on very amicable terms.

They had spent a large portion of that evening discussing plans for the upcoming winter ball, but the rest of the time had been spend just idly chatting.

"Bye Malfoy, I'll see what Dumbledore thinks of your design, but I really like it."

"Thanks Granger. See you tomorrow, same time?"

"Of course, wouldn't miss it for the world." Hermione hadn't really thought that statement through before she said it. She was about to rush out without acknowledging her slip of tongue when she heard Malfoy say:

"Me neither", before he turned and left the room headed towards the dungeons. This event left Hermione feeling oddly satisfied.

The next evening Hermione was killing time before her meeting with Malfoy by hanging out with Ginny in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Hermione", Ginny poked her, indicated an owl tapping at the window. "I think that's for you." Hermione got up and opened the window. She accepted the letter from the bird and it flew off. She wasn't sure who would be writing to her, since her pen pal's letters just appeared and everyone else who she talked to was at Hogwarts with her.

She turned the letter over and recognized her father's handwriting. She returned to her seat beside Ginny and opened it up. She read it over once, twice, three times before she folded it back up. She excused herself to Ginny and decided to go to her common room half an hour early.

As she suspected, the room was deserted, as Malfoy wasn't due for another thirty minutes. She went over to one of the couches, set her letter on the coffee table, and curled up on the couch. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, resting her forehead on her knees and closing her eyes. For a few minutes she just focused on her breathing. It soon became too much. She broke down. Tears quickly formed tracks down her cheeks, disappearing into the soft cotton of her shirt. It didn't stop for the longest time, but Hermione was beyond noticing.

In fact, Malfoy managed to enter the room, not even trying to be stealthy, and she didn't notice. She was far too absorbed in her thoughts and inner torment. She did, however, feel the shift in her position as another body sunk into the couch beside her.

This in and of itself was odd. While they were becoming friends, they still generally sat opposite of each other, never getting too close. However, the oddities didn't stop there, as a tentative arm snaked its way around her shoulders and tugged her until she was leaning against a muscular shoulder.

Hermione, being too upset to think about much of anything, never mind care, relaxed a bit so that her head was leaning more on his chest and he was holding her more comfortably. They didn't move for a long while.

Eventually Hermione's sobs subsided. She didn't move from her position encircled in Malfoy's hold. He didn't seem to mind.

"What happened?" He said it quietly, clearly trying not to startle her. She unwrapped one arm from around her knees and pointed to the letter on the table, indicating that he could read it. He picked it up and read it quickly.

_Dearest Hermione,_

_I'm not really good at this kind of thing, your mother always writes the letters and I sign my name. But here it goes. I really hope that school has been going well for you. I'm really sorry, but you mom, well, she, she had a mammogram, since she missed her one last year because of being in Australia and everything. It didn't go well. They say that it was pretty advanced. It wasn't there two years ago, but it's had plenty of time to develop. There isn't much they can do. She's in the hospital right now, trying some chemotherapy. They aren't too hopeful. _

_I'm so sorry. If you could come home a bit early, before the holidays, I think your mother would really like to spend as much time as possible with you before the meds make her delirious. _

_I love you._

_~Dad_

Malfoy didn't say anything for a while longer after that, just held her a bit tighter.

"When do you think you are going to leave? I'm sure I can take over your head duties and anything else you need done." Hermione sighed. She didn't move, even as she started talking.

"I'm not sure, I just got the letter. I guess I'll have to talk to McGonagall about that. Thanks though, I hadn't even thought about head duties. And with the ball coming up too!"

"Shhh", weirdly enough Malfoy started stroking her hair softly. Even weirder was the fact that it actually soothed Hermione and she was grateful. "Of course you aren't thinking about head duties, you have more important stuff to think about. I'm sure the ball will go smoothly, I promise to enlist help if I feel I need it." Hermione nodded into his chest. Draco called a house elf. When it arrived he asked for Chamomile tea and honey. When it arrived he used his free hand to stir a spoonful of honey into one of the cups and he passed it to Hermione.

"Drink, it'll help. My mother always used to bring me tea when I was upset or couldn't sleep. I think it had a strong calming effect, especially with honey." Hermione lifted her head from his shoulder and smiled in thanks, accepting the tea. She tried to imagine Malfoy as a little kid.

"What was it like?" When he just looked at her like she was crazy she elaborated. "Growing up a Malfoy? I'm trying to picture you as a little kid, like five or so, and I just can't see it." Malfoy chuckled a bit.

"I was much the same. When I was really little I like to think I was a bit more normal, since I hadn't yet had pureblood training drilled into me, so I was more open-minded, I think." Hermione studied him for a minute.

"Is it hard, trying to undo all that training from your childhood?" Malfoy thought about it for a bit.

"Not as hard as you might think. I mean, I've always had a little voice in my head that contradicted my father; I just didn't have much choice to act on it. Now I merely had to switch over. Now I listen to that voice and try to ignore the one that is my father's voice telling me what he would think about everything I'm doing with my life now." Hermione nodded her head in understanding, it made sense.

Once curfew was nearly upon them Hermione turned to Malfoy.

"Thanks." He looked up, hearing the deeper meanings than just for the tea. "I know we've had our rough times, but this really meant a lot to me. I needed it. So, thanks. I promise to return the favor if you ever need it." She had just about reached the door when Malfoy replied.

"You're welcome Granger." She turned her head around briefly, gave him a small smile, and said:

"Goodnight, Draco."

Hermione didn't go to classes the next day. She went to McGonagall first thing in the morning and informed her of the letter. McGonagall gave her the next day or two off and asked when she wanted to leave.

"I was thinking I could leave around the twelfth? That's a week early, but I'm sure I could make up the work and I already talked to Draco about taking over head duties and dealing with the winter ball. He agreed to handle it all." McGonagall gave her a strange look.

"You have already found time to talk to Mr. Malfoy? I was under the impression you just received this letter?" Her tone wasn't accusatory, merely curious.

"I had a meeting with him last night to discuss ball details, but I had just gotten the letter. So we talked about arrangements for me to return home soon." McGonagall smiled.

"It seems like you have everything planned out. I think the twelfth will work fine. Please let me know if you need anything from me or if I can make this easier in any way." Hermione thanked her and returned to the heads' common room. She had sent a note to Harry telling him where she was, the password, and that she needed to talk to him, Ron, and Ginny, whenever they found the time.

They came at lunch.

"Wow Hermione," Ron's mouth was hanging open. "Your common room is sweet! Why haven't we been in here before this?" Hermione sighed.

"Because it's just for Draco and me, we aren't supposed to let anyone else in." They didn't seem to notice her usage of Malfoy's first name, for which she was glad. Ginny spoke up.

"Then why are we here now, we even know the password."

"I will change the password back to what it was before once we are done. But I really needed to talk to you guys and this is where I am most comfortable right now." Harry looked at her curiously.

"You are most comfortable in a room you share with Malfoy?"

"Uhh…yeah. Please, sit down guys, this is hard to say." They sat as Ron's face went white.

"You aren't dating the ferret are you?" Hermione's eyes went wide.

"Why on earth would you think that?" He just shrugged. "Well, no, I'm not. I got a letter yesterday and, long story short, I am going home a week early. I leave on the twelfth."

"Why?" Ginny said.

"I have to see my mom. She, um, well, she has breast cancer and my dad said it would be best if I spend as much time as I can with her before her medication starts to make her less and less lucid." A few tears escaped the corners of her eyes as she choked up a bit. Ginny and Ron looked confused but Harry jumped up to hug her.

"Aww, Hermione, I'm so sorry. Is it bad?" Hermione nodded, not trusting her voice. Ginny spoke up.

"What is breast cancer?" Harry and Hermione looked at her like she was crazy. Hermione quickly explained the basics. Ron seemed to understand.

"Wizards have cancers, but our technology detects it in extremely early, and I mean the absolute beginning, of the formation, so they just eradicate it and we move on. Why didn't they do that to your mom?" Hermione cried a bit harder and Ginny glared at her brother.

"It wasn't there two years ago and she missed her exam last year because _**I **_sent her to Australia with non-updated medical records."

"No!" Harry grabbed her shoulders. "This is in no way your fault! You cannot go blaming yourself. This stuff happens. It sucks, but you can't go beating yourself up about it. Just go home and be with her. I'll pray for you." Hermione nodded her thanks.

Then they had to go back to class. Hermione stayed where she was, staring off into space. She made sure to change the password back, and then she took a nap. Being sad and upset was very exhausting.

"Hermione, wake up." Hermione had no idea who was calling her name. She was drifting in the place between dreaming and waking, and she couldn't think of any possibilities. She was in a common room, so perhaps she had gone to Gryffindor tower and it was Ron or Harry, it was definitely a male voice. But she couldn't hear anything else, and the Gryffindor tower was always loud. So she had to be in the heads' common room. But that meant…

"Draco?" Her voice was soft and groggy, as she pulled herself into consciousness.

"Yes. I brought dinner. You weren't at any meals, so I thought we could have dinner with our tea tonight."

Fully awake Hermione sat up and looked around her. The coffee table was covered in mounds of food and Draco was standing by the chair to her right.

"You brought all of this?" Draco grinned a bit.

"Not really, but I did carry some. The house elves brought up the rest."

Something tugged at Hermione's mind from earlier.

"Can I ask you a question about yesterday?"

"Sure." Hermione paused, still unsure if she really wanted to bring up that evening. She secretly thought it might break the charm and reveal it all to have been a dream. The Draco part, not the letter.

"Do you even know what's wrong with my mother?" Draco looked confused so she continued. "You read the letter, yes, but did you understand what is wrong?" Draco shook his head.

"Not really, no. But it didn't sound good. I'm not sure what a mammogram is, but it sounded like she failed it and that that was not good news." Hermione smiled slightly.

On impulse, and completely without forethought, Hermione got off the couch and went to where Draco was standing. She stood on tip-toe and hugged him. He didn't respond at first, but eventually he wrapped his arms around her back and squeezed lightly. Right before she let go Hermione did one more thoughtless act. She stretched up a bit more and kissed him on the cheek.

Not waiting for a reaction, Hermione returned to her seat and began to fill herself a plate.

"So basically you comforted me without even really knowing what was wrong?" Draco was still standing where she had left him, looking a bit shocked. He shook his head a bit before sitting down in the chair and filling a plate as well.

"Yeah, why, is that bad?" Hermione laughed a bit.

"No, not at all. It's really thoughtful and sweet. Again, I really appreciate it, I needed it." Draco looked a bit nervous.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is wrong with her? If you don't want to you don't have to answer." Again Hermione was touched by his considerate behavior.

"No, that's alright. It means she had breast cancer, which is often fatal to muggles, as we don't have the resources to detect it as early as Wizards do. A mammography is the thing that tests for cancer. It found some in my mother that is pretty far along, which is not good. Muggle women get tested every year for it, but she missed hers last year because of the war." He looked confused as to how those two things went together.

"I hid my parents in Australia with no memory of their lives in England, so she didn't think to go and the doctors there didn't know." He seemed to understand better. "Yeah, so Chemo is a treatment they do to try and kill the cancer, but it doesn't always work on such advanced cases. The medication she will have to start taking after the chemo will probably make her a bit crazy, so I want to visit with her before she gets to that point. I want to be able to talk to her and have her know who I am." She stopped talking, she wasn't really able to continue, but Draco seemed to understand.

Nothing much else was said on the topic. Mostly they just ate and talked about classes and the ball. When curfew approached They cleaned up and head off in their different directions.

"Bye Draco." Hermione said, turning to leave.

"Bye Hermione." Hermione almost stopped walking, but forced herself to continue. She had thought she had still been dreaming when he had called her Hermione earlier, but there was no mistaking it that time.

They were so totally friends.


	7. Going Home

Chapter 7- going home

**AN: Please read and review. And by the way, if any of you were upset/insulted or something by the last chapter I am so sorry. I know little about cancer, I don't know if Chemo makes everyone 'crazy' as I put it, I'm just going off of how my mom describes what it did to her mom. So if I was inaccurate or insensitive I sincerely apologize. It was accidentally done.**

The time before Hermione left to go visit her mom was a bit like Limbo, she was neither there nor was she not there. She continued to meet with Draco every evening, though they did not discuss her leaving. She helped him finalize the plans for the winter ball so that it could go smoothly without her being there. It wasn't until the tenth, two days before she was set to leave, that she realized she would need to tell her pen pal something.

She received a letter from him that morning as usual:

_Dear Grace,_

_Naturally my favorite toy as a child was my toy broomstick. It only hovered about two feet above the ground, but I had fun all the same. My mother was always terrified I was going to kill myself. Now, you asked which was superior, cake or pie. I prefer pie, which could just be because my parents served a lot more pie than cake in my childhood. Though, I will concede your point that chocolate cake is a necessity in life, but something you said has me confused. I must admit, I have never heard of "Oreo Pie", what is an 'oreo'? Onto questions for you. What is your first ever memory? And, would you rather spend your whole day flying, or spend your whole day swimming? By the way, if you choose swimming, what's your bathing suit look like. haha. You don't have to say, I'm just teasing. Are you excited for the winter ball on the 19__th__? Hope your week is going well. _

_Yours,_

_Damien_

This letter made Hermione realize that she was dealing with either a pureblood or a halfblood who wasn't very in touch with his muggle side. She knew it couldn't be a muggleborn, because who hasn't heard of Oreos? Oreo pie might be a bit weirder, but not to even know what an Oreo is, definitely a magical background. Additionally, since a muggleborn couldn't have had a toy broom until after he got his Hogwarts letter, it seemed improbably that that would be his favorite 'childhood' toy, since he could have just gotten a real one. At least that narrowed down the pool of possibilities, not that she was super eager to find out who it was. If she was she could just go around asking people what an Oreo was until she found the person who didn't know, but she enjoyed not knowing, it made it more fun and relaxed.

Hermione was sure her next letter was going to put a stress on the 'relaxed' feeling of their relationship.

_Dear Damien,_

_First off, an Oreo is a cookie composed of two chocolate cookies sandwiched around a white cream filling. They are delicious, especially dipped in milk. My earliest memory is probably this one memory from before I started Kindergarten (which starts at age five, if you don't know). My dad had just explained the concept of mother's day to me. I decided that the very next day was mother's day, even though it wasn't, and so I made my mom a card. I used my finger paints and it, quite illegibly, said "Happi Mom Day! Luv," and then my name. I was too young to be able to write well, so this was an accomplishment. I placed it on my mom's place at the breakfast table. She was surprised the next day, a bit confused too, but very happy and proud of me. We had a great, fake mother's day. Seeing as how I cannot fly, I would have to say that I would spend my day swimming, probably in a lifeguard style red one-piece. But I might splurge and go with a bikini, you never know. _

_I am afraid that I need to request a pause in communication. I can't explain it to you, but I will not be able to respond to your letters this coming week and over the winter break. Feel free to send ones if you want and I will reply later, but I'm going through some stuff and it's just one more thing on my plate. Please don't be offended, this has nothing to do with you, I'm enjoying our correspondences greatly. I hope this does not affect our friendship._

_Questions to ponder: What is the most meaningful book you have ever read? And, on the flying topic, would you rather never be able to set foot on solid ground again, flying for the rest of your life, or never be able to fly again? Hope your week and winter break are better than mine._

_Forever,_

_Grace_

Hermione sent off her letter and turned towards her trunk. She needed to pack enough for the break, so she needed to get started. While she packed she pondered what she knew about Damien. He was obviously magical by birth, since he had a toy broomstick and had never heard of an Oreo. He had a major sweet tooth, preferred raspberries to strawberries, like dark blue, dislikes Filch- though that applies to everyone, attended the pumpkin carving contest and likes to brew Amortentia. All together it wasn't the most useful information. However, the tone of his letters made her imagine a confident guy, so she pictured him as either a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin. Dark blue as a favorite color made her think more Ravenclaw, but that was just stereotyping, since liking light purple said nothing about her being in Gryffindor. He had mentioned in passing that he was an only child, which would be more useful if she knew more about the families of the guys in Ravenclaw. Nearly all the guys in Slytherin were only children, by happenstance. She wasn't yet ready to make any guesses.

Finally Hermione said goodbye to her friends and used a portkey set up by Professor McGonagall to go to her house. From there her father drove her to the muggle hospital where her mother was being taken care of; on the way Hermione brought up an idea to her father.

"Dad, I know that even magic won't be able to make much of a difference now, and that wizards know much less about cancer, since they eliminate it nearly immediately, but I just had a thought. I wondered, if, in the end…" Hermione was having troubles talking around the lump in her throat. "If there is nothing our hospital can do at all, maybe we could move mom to St. Mungo's. I mean, I think that wizards probably have better ways of making someone comfortable and in no pain. I don't want mom to suffer. And perhaps their methods would keep her lucid for longer." Her father seemed to think this over. He sighed.

"We will cross that bridge when we get to it sweetie. For now, let's just cross our fingers and pray that God lets the Chemo treatment stick." Hermione nodded and went back to staring out the window.

Her mother was sleeping when they arrived. Hermione offered to stay by her bedside while her dad went to find them tea or hot cocoa. It was while she was waiting for her mom to wake up that Hermione got another letter from Damien. She was grateful that no nurses were in the room at the time, since a letter just appeared in her lap where there had been no letter before. Since her mother was still sound asleep she took that time to open it and read it.

_Dear Grace,_

_I'm sorry to hear that you are stressed by something. If it doesn't add too much to your stress I would like to keep writing throughout break, even if you don't reply to any of them. I find that writing to you is a high point in my day. I generally spend my days bored. I have a friend that I talk to at great lengths and that is another highlight in my days, but they are going home for break and I am not, so I will be terribly alone. _

_I would rather fly forever than never. Flying is so relaxing. It feels like nothing can touch you, like you could do anything, be anyone. It such a freeing experience, I hope you experience it one day. The most meaningful book I have ever read was this book called "The Stranger". It was written by some Muggle named Albert Camus. I know, funny name. I never really read Muggle books at home, but here at school I like to peruse the Muggle section of the library every once in a while. This book really made me question life and its purpose. It's about this concept called existentialism that is basically like, what's the meaning of life, nothing matters. It really made me value my life because it made me think about how much I like living. You should read it. _

_I really hope things get better for you. I will leave my questions for my last letter at the end of the break._

_Yours,_

_Damien_

Hermione smiled. She was glad he enjoyed writing to her and was flattered that he wasn't willing to give it up just because she wouldn't be responding. His answers surprised her. He sounded like a Pureblood, since a half-blood would probably read at least some Muggle books at home, but at the same time, what Pureblood would read Muggle books at school? He was a mystery. Hermione had, of course, read "The Stranger", it really was a great book, though complex. It had caused a similar inner turmoil in her when she had read it. In the end she decided that life did matter and that it was worth it to live it how she thought best.

As she finished reading it she heard the sounds of her mother waking up.

"Hey mom." Her mother turned to look at her, giving her a weak smile.

"Hey honey. I'm so sorry that this had to happen to you, and to have to see me like this. You should be at school enjoying yourself. You're Head Girl, don't you need to be there?" Hermione scooted her chair closer to her mom's bed and grasped her cold, slightly clammy hand.

"Nonsense. First of all, how could this happen to me? How could it happen to you? You don't deserve it. If I had just been more careful they would have discovered it last year, but I made you miss a mammogram. And the Head Boy can manage without me for a week, I _need_ to be here." Her mother's eyes opened wide.

"Oh no, hon. This is in no way your fault. Who knows if it would have been any more manageable if it had been caught last year, or even if it was there then, it could be a really fast growing case. You never know. It does you no good to play the 'what if' game. This was going to happen no matter what, you had nothing to do with it. Now, tell me about how school has been so far, I want to know how this pen pal thing is going."

Hermione settled in and began to tell her mother about everything about her year so far. She told her mother about Draco Malfoy, something only she and he knew. She told her mother everything she knew about Damien, her feelings for them both, Harry and Ron's feelings towards their pen pals, the Pumpkin Carving Contest success, the other events, she retold absolutely every detail she could remember about her first few months of seventh year.

Her mother told her that both Draco and Damien sounded like great guys and promised not to tell a soul what she knew, but really, who could she tell where it would reach Hogwarts? For the most part her mom just reveled in the feelings of pride that emanated from her about her daughter. Hermione was Head Girl, working towards inter-house unity, getting along with a former enemy, what more could a mother ask for in a daughter?

Hermione planned to spend most of her break with her mother. She visited every day for most of the day, taking breaks when her mother needed sleep or treatment. She did take a few days off to go Christmas shopping. She needed to get presents for her friends and, of course, her parents. She stopped at the hospital first to check in on her mother and kiss her before heading out shopping. Her mother wished her a great day shopping and her father discreetly passed her a handful of pounds for her trip. Her parents may not be rich, but they did spoil her.

Hermione went shopping in Muggle London first. She knew exactly what to get Harry and Ron. They were stereotypical boys. She got them Muggle chocolate though, since she usually got their gifts from Honeydukes, just for something different. She got their gifts at Ghirardelli, some of the best chocolate in her opinion. For Ginny she got a pretty looking bracelet with matching earings and a nice looking skirt. Again, that was easy, as Ginny was also very stereotypical. She got small trinkets for other friends such as Neville, Luna, Dean, Seamus, etc.

The troublesome friend was Draco Malfoy. She was nearly positive that they both considered them to be friends at that point. But she wasn't sure if he was planning on getting her a gift. And if he wasn't she didn't want to make him feel guilty or pressured when he got one from her, but she didn't want to not get him one and then get something from him. It was quite the conundrum. She decided to try to find something that related to one of their talks, so that it would be less intimidating. She felt like that would make it more of a 'thanks for keeping me sane' and less of an 'I deem us friends so we need to exchange meaningful gifts'. She felt that this situation relieved some of the pressure.

She decided to go off of the thing that sort of brought them together, insults and tea. First she went to a Muggle tea store, figuring that if there was a tea that he had never tried, it would be a muggle tea. She asked them for their finest or rarest teas. She was shown a rare tea called Pu-erh tea. It was only made in a small island in China and was both fermented and oxidized. It was described as having a dark, smooth, chocolate or espresso flavor. It looked perfect. It was a bit pricey, but Hermione didn't mind. Again, she tried not to analyze her Malfoy thoughts, since she spent as much on him as she did on Harry or Ron. But she needed to get high quality Pu-erh, since low quality Pu-erh was said to taste muddy.

She bought her father a new watch, since she had noticed his was missing from his wrist. When she had asked about it he said he had dropped it and then, not seeing it, accidently stepped on it. He hadn't gotten around to buying a new one yet.

Hermione didn't buy her mother a present. She did go into Diagon Alley to buy the necessary items to make her present though.

The last gift she got was for Damien. She wasn't entirely sure if she could attach a present to her letter and have it send, but she figured she could try. She remembered his sweet tooth and love of raspberries, so she combined the two and bought him chocolate with dried raspberries in it. She felt that was a little light, so she sorted through her knowledge of him in her mind and, remembering his lack of Oreo knowledge, she jokingly bought him a package of Oreos.

She brought all of her goodies home to wrap. She had the house to herself, as her father was at the hospital, so she spread everything out without worrying about someone walking in and seeing the presents. When she was done wrapping everything she got to work on making her mom's present.

In Diagon Alley she had spent a large chunk of change to purchase an item that functioned similar to a pensive. It allowed her to sort through her memories and take snapshots. She planned to make her mother a photo-album of their lives together. This took awhile, as Hermione had nearly eighteen years of life to go through.

Slowly the album came together, photo by photo. Once she was done with the first step, Hermione went through all the pages, adding captions to each photo, little anecdotes, stories, etc. The album itself was special. It locked. If her mother pressed one button it knew she was only with people who knew of magic, and the photos would move. If she pressed a different button it would know there were ignorant Muggles around and the pictures would be still. Hermione cried when she finished, looking through all the happy memories, including the fake mother's day she had recently told Damien about.

Once she was done wrapping all the gifts she placed them in her room and went back to the hospital. There she found her parents together, talking in whispers.

"What's going on, talking about me are you?" She said it jokingly, but their faces clearly said that she was spot on. "What?" Her father motioned for her to take a seat and she did. Her mother turned to face her.

"We were just discussing an idea. You see, I am about to go in for another round of Chemo, so you won't be able to see me much for the next few days, as I'll be really sickly and I don't really want you to see me like that. So, your father and I were talking and, I want you to go to the ball." Hermione looked at her confusedly. "You mentioned to me that it was this Friday, that is in two days. I think you should attend, since I will not be really up to visitors, so you would just be wasting your time hanging out here, and I don't want you to miss something you worked so hard on and it's a big part of your seventh year. I don't want you to miss out on seventh year because of me, ok? I want you to have fun. So I am demanding that you go out tomorrow and buy yourself a dress and shoes, and then attend that ball. Do you understand?" A few tears were leaking out of both Hermione and her mother's eyes.

"But mom, I don't want to miss anything, I can't leave you!" Her mother just shook her head.

"You won't be missing anything. You can and you will leave. I am sick, I can get whatever I want now, and this is what I want." Hermione couldn't help but give a watery laugh at her mother's way of viewing things. "I want you to take lots of pictures so I can see it all, see you in your dress, everything." Hermione finally agreed.

The next day she set out to buy herself a fitting dress. They had set up the theme like a winter wonderland. Hermione searched all the dress shops in Diagon Alley and didn't find quite the right dress. Once again she ventured into Muggle London to find the right dress. She found it in the first shop she tried.

She went into this eclectic looking shop that seemed to be mostly gently used items. It had some dresses on display so she thought she would give it a try. She tried on a few colorful selection before deciding to try on the white one. It looked a bit like a wedding dress, but since it was a wintery theme for the ball, she thought it might just work. It did.

She fell in love as soon as she put it on and she quickly took it off, bought it, and went in search of shoes to match. For just a few hours she forgot about the tragedy taking over her life and all her thoughts were absorbed with the ball and everything she needed to be ready by the next day.

Thank goodness for mothers.


	8. The Belle of the Ball

Chapter 8- The Belle of the Ball

**AN: Please read and review!**

Hermione had completely forgotten to tell anyone that she was going to be coming back for the ball. She had sent an owl to Professor McGonagall to tell her that she would be returning for that one night, but beyond that she hadn't even thought to tell anyone else. She had briefly contemplated telling her pen pal that she would be there, but she discarded this thought, since it wouldn't make any difference.

The day of the ball arrived and Hermione made her way to the hospital with all of her makeup, hair products, everything. Her mother had made her promise to get ready at the hospital. Mrs. Granger didn't want to pass up the opportunity to help her daughter get all dolled up, since she would probably miss Hermione's wedding day.

They spent the morning just hanging out, talking, and generally spending quality mother-daughter time together. When the time came to start getting ready, Hermione's mother started working to tame her hair. First she straightened it, which took an hour on its own. Once it was sleek she started curling it into tame ringlets.

"Why do you bother to straighten it if you are just going to curl it?" Her mother gave her a look that clearly said, 'mother knows best, always'.

"Because, Hermione dear", she spoke with a patronizing tone, jokingly talking to Hermione like she was a small child. "It would be impossible to curl in a nice way if it wasn't first straightened." Hermione didn't interrupt again.

Once all of her hair was hanging in curly waves down her back her mother started pinning the curls up on her head. Once they were all up the effect was that it looked like an elegant messy-bun with a few loose strands. The loose strands curled to either side of her face.

"Oh mom, this is perfect, and so pretty! Where did you learn to do this?" Hermione's mother smiled.

"I was a young girl once. My friends and I would do each other's hair. My mother taught me how to do this particular style. Believe it or not, but when I was your age my hair was just as unmanageably thick and curly." Hermione was, honestly, a bit surprised to hear that.

"But your hair has always been so smooth and beautiful. How did it get like that?" Her mother brushed a hand along the side of her face caringly.

"Trust me sweetie, your will get there. It just takes time. I didn't do anything; it just changed as I got older. Yours will too." This made Hermione smile, thinking about have manageable hair.

Next they did Hermione's makeup. After the basics like foundation and cover-up, they decided on a pale pink blush. For her eyes she did subtle blue makeup for her eyes. It was a metallic kind of blue just around the eyes paired with dark black mascara. She used pale pink, almost nude, lipstick. To all of this Hermione added a charm that would keep it all looking that way. For her hair it was like a very strong hairspray, for her makeup, it was like waterproofing and long-lasting protection.

"Ok," Hermione's mother said once they were done. They had half an hour left before Hermione had to leave to get to Hogwarts on time. "Now that I've labored tirelessly to get you looking even more breathtaking than usual, I deserve to see the final product, go put your dress on and come out here."

Hermione took her garment bag with her dress inside and went into her mother's hospital room bathroom. Instead of putting her dress on the regular way, she used magic to swap what she was wearing with the dress, this way her hair and makeup were not disturbed. She slipped on her dainty white heels and her jewelry. She had chosen a simple silver chain necklace with a snowflake pendant. her earrings were long silver dangling strands. She wore a silver bracelet her mother had once given her than was bare except for the small interlocking hearts charm signifying her and her mother's love. She only wore one ring. On her right hand ring finger show wore a simple silver band with a braid design sketched into the metal, a present from her father's mother, who was big on her Celtic identity. Once done she stepped out of the bathroom.

"Oh, honey, you look magnificent." Hermione's dad had been asked to come back in the room to see the final look. He couldn't even speak.

"My baby" he finally said. "You are so grown up. When did this happen?" Hermione smiled through the few tears that fell. Luckily her magic did make it all waterproof, so she could cry all she wanted to.

"Hermione, dear," her mother said through her own tears. "You look like a princess."

The dress Hermione had settled on was strapless. It had a sweetheart neckline with a draped criss-cross bodice. There was sparkling crystal beading on the top with a ball gown tulle skirt with a glitter net over taffeta. The glittler made the skirt of the dress look like it was studded with starts. The draped criss-cross bodice tugged at Hermione's waist, making her appear even skinnier than she really was and accenting her chest slightly with the sweetheart neckline. The overall effect was majestic.

"Thanks mom, dad. I really should get going soon." Her dad pulled out a camera.

"Go stand over by your mother; we need to document this moment, our baby growing up into a woman just as stunning as her mother." Both women beamed at him as Hermione did as he asked. After taking a bunch of pictures of Hermione with her mother, with her father, a nurse taking pictures of Hermione with both of her parents, and pictures of Hermione by herself they finally let her go. Hermione turned towards her mother before leaving.

"You have fun sweetie, enjoy yourself, you deserve it." Hermione smiled at her mother.

"Thanks for everything mom, have a good evening, don't get too wild while I'm not here to watch you, ok?" Her mother promised not to have too much fun, they kissed and hugged, and Hermione headed out to find a suitable aparation point.

It ended up that, thanks to all the picture taking, and a small miscalculation on Hermione's part as to how long it would actually take her to walk from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts, that Hermione arrived at the ball fifteen minutes late. She was greeted at the gates of the school by Professor McGonagall and led to the Great Hall where the dance was taking place.

"I have to tell you Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall started, turning to Hermione, "I was dubious about you leaving the ball in the hands of Draco Malfoy, but I must say, it turned out splendidly. He did a great job, was very organized. I think you will be proud of it all." Hermione was pleasantly surprised by this statement.

"I never doubted in Draco's abilities, he might surprise you. He's not the same as he was before the war." Professor McGonagall gave her a curious look before nodding and continuing towards the Great Hall.

"Here you are Miss Granger. I hope you have a lovely time." Hermione smiled at her Professor before going to open the Great Hall doors. McGonagall spoke one last thing before she left to go back to her office. "You look wonderful, by the way, Miss Granger. Now go have fun." And Hermione opened the door and entered the Great Hall.

She paused momentarily upon entering the room. She was stunned. Draco had done wonderfully. The lighting was tinted ever so slightly blue. The ceiling was a canopy of white birch tree branches, with the starry sky just visible between the branches. It was snowing. The snow disappeared a few feet above the heads of the students, so that no one actually got wet. The tables along the sides of the dance floor were circular with white table clothes and clear class chairs. The center pieces were igloos made of white Lisianthus and a mix of blue and clear bits of glass covered the tables to make them glitter. The dance floor itself looked like it was covered in snow, but she could tell by the way people were dancing that it was just an illusion, so the snow didn't get in the way of the dancing. Up where the Professor's usually sat was the same long table, only it was covered in food. In the center of the table was a large ice sculpture of the Hogwarts Crest. Hermione was very pleased with the overall effect; it was positively ethereal, in the best way possible.

As Hermione had been starring around her in amazement, many of the people had turned to stare at her in return. For one thing, she was late, so everyone noticed her in a way they might not have had she arrived with everyone else. Secondly, she really did look spectacular, especially considering what everyone usually thought of when they though 'Hermione Granger'. Most of them remembered the Yule Ball, so they had seen her dolled up before, but never to this extent.

Hermione spotted Draco Malfoy standing alone by the table of butterbeers and looking at her. Frankly, he looked a bit stunned. She made her way over to him. He was smartly dressed, oozing sex appeal and a superiority complex. She almost blushed just looking at him.

"Hello Draco, you did an amazing job with the ball. Honestly, I knew you would and all, but you've outdone yourself. It is breathtaking." She smiled up at him, genuinely happy to see him. He gave her a small smile of his own, which only served to turn her smile into a grin.

"Thanks. You look great; you blend in really well with the theme. I didn't think you would be coming, since you went home and all." Ah, so that's why he'd been surprised.

"Thanks. And my mother insisted that I come back for the dance, so here I am. I hadn't meant to be late, but my mother was taking a million pictures of me in my dress so it took _forever_ to leave." She smiled a bit sadly, thinking of her mother, but Draco just passed her a butterbeer, giving her an understanding look. "So I take it there were no glitches, it all got off to a smooth start? No trouble while I've been gone?" Draco shook his head.

"Nope, it's all been pretty quite. Professor McGonagall announced that after Christmas break we will be allowed to tell our pen pals what house we are in, but nothing else. I don't know if she told you." Hermione's eyebrows shot up.

"No, she hadn't told me. That should be fun. I already have my suspicions though."

"Yeah? Which house do you think your pen pal is in? I mean, obviously not Gryffindor."

"No, couldn't be Gryffindor. I think he's either in Ravenclaw or Slytherin, personally."

"Hmm. A Slytherin guy, that would be funny. He might have an aneurism if he found out he'd been writing to none other than one third of the Wizarding world's saviors. Then again, that would be true of any guy." Hermione gave a faint, un-amused laugh at the thought. "What makes you think he's one of those two houses, why not Hufflepuff?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure he's a pureblood, and there are fewer purebloods in Hufflepuff. And he just doesn't write like I know most Hufflepuff's talk. He's too sure of himself. How about you, got any suspicions about your pen pal?" Draco shook his head.

"Not really. My pen pal is a girl; that much I know. She's obviously not a Slytherin. But as to which house she's in, I honestly don't know. She does sound pretty smart, so perhaps a Ravenclaw?" Hermione nodded in understanding.

"Are you worried about the revealing? I mean, like you said, whomever I end up with is going to have to deal with the fact that I am Hermione Granger. But the same can be said for you. You know you don't have a Slytherin, so, and I honestly am not trying to insult you, but there aren't many people in other houses that are particularly fond of you." Surprisingly, Draco laughed at that.

"No, you are right about that. I guess I'm a bit worried. Mostly I'm hoping they will think about our letters and try to ignore the past. We get along really well and I really like her, so I'm hoping she can overlook my past indiscretions."

After this they amicably parted ways as Hermione went to find Harry, Ron, and Ginny to say hello. Hermione spent most of the ball hanging out with those three, dancing, eating, talking, and just generally having fun. Ginny was dressed in a strapless, floor-length pale blue dress. The dress was fitted so that it clung to her body and only flared out a bit towards the bottom to make walking easy. Over the top Ginny had a white, furry shoulder cover, like a muff, only over her shoulders as a wrap. Overall it looked perfect for the theme and suited her body shape quite well. The boys were, of course, dressed in classy black dress robes. Harry had white accents, Ron had blue. They were a striking pair.

Hermione saw Luna Lovegood from across the dance floor. Luna looked beautiful in her short blue dress. It was strapless and made of dark blue satin. It had a crumb catcher style bodice with a fitted waistband with beadwork in a flower pattern. The skirt was taffeta and tulle of a slightly darker blue and came down mid-thigh. Hermione was impressed.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the ball was a big hit. Hermione got countless compliments about her dress and was asked to dance by many different guys. Secretly Hermione talked to them while they were dancing to try and see if any of them sounded like Damien. They didn't.

Towards the end of the evening Hermione decided that it was time to check out the dessert table. She had left most of the food decisions up to Draco, figuring he could handle it. So far that evening, his choices had all been great and she had definitely eaten her fill. He had a selection of soups, stews, steak, good food. The drinks were great, including hot chocolate, butterbeer, tea, and milkshakes. A mixture of cold drinks and drinks you drink when cold. Hermione dragged Ginny with her as she went to peruse the desserts. There was a large selection of ice creams, snow cones, cheesecake, smores, a chocolate fountain, various baked goods, and so much more. There were clear glass containers filled with various sweets, like m&amp;ms, white chocolate covered pretzel sticks, blue and white rock candy sticks, and blue and white candy canes.

"All these desserts look absolutely delicious Hermione. Oh, but what's that, it looks like it has chocolate in it. Mmmm. Looks creamy." Hermione looked over to what Ginny was putting on her plate and her face lost a bit of its color. She quickly shook her head, deemed it a coincidence and went to grab herself a slice.

"This, Ginny, is only the most delicious pie on the planet, Oreo Pie. It does have chocolate, and cream, and other delicious ingredients. It's my favorite pie." She took a large slice and they went to sit down to eat.

Finally, the last dance of the evening came and Professor McGonagall had come down from her office to close the evening.

"Students, I hope you have all had a great time tonight. I would like to thank our Head students for their hard work in putting this all together for you all." Everyone burst into rowdy applause. "For the last dance I would like to ask our two Head students to close the evening for us by sharing a Heads' dance." As she said this, on came a waltz.

Hermione scanned the crowd and spotted Draco. He was looking at her with a small smile on his face and walking towards her. She, in turn, began to walk towards him. They met in the middle of the dance floor. Draco bowed graciously and offered her his hand. She placed her hand in his, placing her other hand on his shoulder as his went to her waist. They began to waltz.

"I should warn you," Hermione whispered to him conspiratorially, "I am not very good at waltzing, I haven't had many opportunities to practice." Draco chuckled a bit.

"That's quite alright, just follow my leave. I have had lots of practice." She did as he said and she could tell he was quite good at dancing. She barely had to do any work as he glided them across the floor, twirling her occasionally. Other couples had joined them on the floor by that time. Hermione could hear a few people saying things like 'since when do they get along', 'ten sickles says she slaps him', and 'are they together?' The last one made her giggle a bit. Draco seemed happily oblivious. They didn't talk much as they danced, mostly just enjoying the simple pleasure of dancing.

"So, Draco, how have you been coping without our daily meetings? You doing ok?" She chuckled to show she was in no way seriously insinuating that he needed her to get by. Draco laughed a bit too, it was a nice sound.

"Oh, it's been so hard! I don't know how I'll last the whole of winter break." He chuckled a bit. "Nah, it's been alright. I miss just relaxing and chatting with you, but things have picked up with my friends. I don't find Blaise and Pansy nearly as annoying as I had previously. So, it's actually kind of nice to be forced to hang out with them more. I guess I have you to thank for that." They smiled at each other before resuming their comfortable silence.

Unfortunately they night had to come to an end. At the end of the dance everyone clapped, mostly just to say that it had been a good ball. Hermione said goodbye to Draco, he gave her a gentlemanly kiss on the back of her hand before heading off to the Dungeons. Hermione then proceeded to say goodbye to her other friends before making her way home, despite the late hour.


	9. Crying on Christmas

Chapter 9- Crying on Christmas

**AN: Please read and review, I'm trying to balance happy with sad, hope it works. **

The four days after the ball but before Christmas were spent playing games as a family. Hermione went to the hospital every day, bringing a different game with her every time. They played Monopoly, which her father won easily, Scrabble, which Hermione won hands down, and lots of Blokus, which her mother liked very much and at which she almost always triumphed.

Two days before Christmas her father asked to talk to her alone for a minute. Hermione obliged and they went on a walk through the halls of the hospital together. Hermione turned towards her father.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

Her dad looked a bit uncomfortable. "Well, it's about Christmas. See, I hadn't really thought about it much, or, I have, but not in the extension of thinking about you, or, I mean…"

Hermione would have laughed if she hadn't been worried it was something really serious. "Dad, just relax, I'm sure whatever it is you have to say is fine and that I will understand, just sit down and tell me." They sat on a nearby bench; he turned to speak to her again.

"It's just, I know that things don't look all that great right now. I know that the doctors have explained it to you the same way that they have to you, that this could easily be your mother's last Christmas. I hate thinking about it like this, but I compared it a bit to like, when I was twenty or so, my great uncle was in his nineties. He said that since he was in his 'terminal decade', as he liked to call it, he did not want any useless things. He didn't need stuff. He wanted to do stuff. He wanted a trip to go fishing, he wanted us to visit more often, but he didn't want material goods. He told us, 'what good would that do him, he was old as dirt'. Now, I know that your mother is nothing like him. She is young and should have a lot more time with us. But I don't think that she will. So I went with the idea of non-material goods for Christmas. But I didn't think to talk to you about what you would be getting her for Christmas. It's ok if you did get her stuff; I just wanted you to understand why I got her what I got her." Her dad looked nervous; like he was worried she would be upset by what he said.

"It's ok dad. I'm not naïve." She reached out to touch his arm lightly, so he would know she wasn't saying she thought he was calling her naïve. "I know what the doctors are saying and I realized when shopping, how useless and meaningless anything I could get her would be. I'm not going to tell you what I got her, it's a secret, but I promise, it works. I really think she is going to like it, hopefully love it. Thanks for your concern dad. I know you've been really struggling with this all, I don't blame you at all. I'm managing. I had some trouble when I first found out, but a good friend of mine helped me through it."

Her dad looked at her quizzically. "How did they help you through it, I'd love to know the secret."

Hermione looked at her dad sadly. "I'm not sure my method will work for you. I cried. I cried a lot. I even screamed a little. And my friend, he just held me. He didn't ask questions. He didn't tell me that it was all going to be alright. He didn't shush me or tell me to calm down. He just held me and let me get it all out. It really helped, in a way nothing else has."

Her dad smiled a bit. "Sounds like you've got a good friend in him. Was it Harry or Ron?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, it was this other guy, we only just became friends this year." Her dad nodded understandingly.

"Well, he sounds like a keeper, a really top notch friend." They hugged a bit before returning to the hospital room where Hermione's mother was staying.

Hermione added the finishing touches to her mother's present. She had had to unwrap it after going to the ball, since her 'getting ready with mom' memories definitely needed to be included. She re-wrapped it and packed up her presents to go to the hospital.

The doctors had told them that her mother was too sick to spend Christmas at home, so they set up a fake tree in the corner of her mother's hospital room and piled the presents under there. They decorated the room like they always decorated the living room at home. As far as the Granger family was concerned, it was Christmas as usual, just with a slightly unconventional locale.

Post-ball Hermione had received another letter from Damien.

_Dear Grace,_

_Did you go to the ball? I know you won't respond, as you are on hiatus, but I have to ask. I'm assuming you did, since almost everyone did. It was amazing. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I finally tried Oreo Pie. You were right, it's really good. Maybe someday I'll try an Oreo. I hope you had a good day, whether you went or not._

_I'm trying to send my gift along with this letter, I hope it works. You are forbidden from opening it before Christmas. Well, you couldn't even if you wanted to; I put a charm on it to keep the wrapping sealed until Christmas morning. So, no cheating. I hope you like it, but if you don't, feel free to return it. I can honestly say that I don't have much background in buying gifts for girls. _

_So, after Christmas break we are going to be allowed to tell one another what house we are from. Are you nervous? 'Cause I kind of am. I just ask that you judge me based on our correspondences. I must say, these letters between us, they are more 'me' than anyone has ever seen, so tread lightly. I really have never been so honest in my life. You should feel honored. haha. Anyway, I have begun to ramble. I sincerely wish you a fantastic Christmas and hope to receive the joy of returned correspondence with you once school starts again. _

_Questions for the future- would you rather dance everywhere you go or sing everything you want to say? What is your favorite thing to wear?_

_Yours,_

_Damien_

Damien had indeed succeeded in sending his gift, which meant Hermione would be able to send hers. She placed his under the tree at the hospital with all the others; after, of course, she had explained to her mother what mysterious boy was sending her presents.

Christmas finally arrived. Hermione slept in, knowing that her mother needed her sleep, and headed to the hospital around noon. Her mother was just eating her breakfast and offered for Hermione to join.

"No thanks mom. You may like that stuff, heck, dad loves cafeteria food, but I like real food. I ate at the house before coming." She smiled at her mother and took a seat beside her. She then looked over at the tree. There was a plethora of gifts there. "Mom, where in the world did all those gifts come from?"

Her mother shrugged. "I'm assuming most are for you from your _wizard_ friends, since they just appeared overnight." Her mother whispered the word 'wizard', scared someone might overhear.

"Oh," Hermione was surprised, they couldn't possibly be all for her. "Sorry to crowd up your room." They shared grins.

Hermione's father came in then, as expected, with a plate of food from the cafeteria. He offered some to Hermione, much like her mother had, and she reiterated her argument.

"Ready to open presents kiddo?" Her father took the seat on the other side of her mother's bed after closing the door.

"Sure, I'll be the present fetcher, since you're both eating." No one mentioned that the reason her mother couldn't fetch presents was _not_ because she was eating. They were determined to have a fun, normal Christmas. Hermione quickly doled out all of the gifts. She did have a large pile, but a lot of them were for her parents and many for her mother, so she didn't feel too bad.

They took turns opening their gifts from their various family members. Once that was done they moved onto non-family member gifts, leaving their gifts for each other for last.

"Hermione dearest, who is Draco Malfoy?"

Hermione looked at her mother in confusion. "Um, a guy from school. He's Head Boy this year. Why?"

Her mother was looking at a rather large, oddly shaped gift in her hands. "Well, he sent your father and I a gift. I didn't think I had met him."

Hermione was thoroughly confused. "You haven't. I don't know why he sent you a gift, I didn't even think he was sending me one." She riffled through her gifts quickly. "Oh, here it is. He sent me one too. I mean, I sent him one, but I honestly didn't expect one in return. What did he get you guys?"

Her mother opened the gift. "Oh, how sweet. Look, it's a lovely basket filled with chocolates and sweets. You know, I don't recognize any of these, are they from your world dear?"

Hermione peeked into the basked. "Yes, that's Honeyduke's chocolates, they are the best. But I have to warn you, the chocolate frogs really jump, so don't open them when another Muggle is around, and the every flavored beans really have every flavor, so be warned."

Her mother smiled at her as she set the gift basket on the floor by her bed. "What did he get for you?"

Hermione looked down at the gift in her hands and went to open it. She undid the wrapping to reveal a box. She opened the lid to find a few different components to the gift. First and foremost was tea. He had gotten her "Raspberry Shortcake" tea. Additionally there was an envelope and a note. She read the note first.

It read:

"Hermione, you might not remember it, but the first day we had tea I told you that the best tea I had ever had was one that tasted just like raspberry shortcake. Well, I found it again, so here you go. Hope it helps you over the break. The envelope is also something from the first time we had tea, hope you remember. ~Draco Malfoy"

Hermione hastened to open the envelope. Inside was an elegantly designed piece of paper with an official looking Malfoy crest on it, signed by Draco, himself. It stated, in big, bold, green letters that "I, Draco Malfoy, owe one, Hermione Granger, a favor of her choosing for returning me safely to my home. This favor can be anything and at any time." Hermione chuckled a bit, turning to her parents.

"We drink tea during our Heads' meetings, and he had once mentioned that this was the best tea he had ever had. I guess he thought I would like to try it. It's kind of funny, since I sent him tea too."

Her parents smiled and they all moved one. Hermione got the typical guy gift of sweets from Ron and Harry got her a book. The book had no title, so Hermione was confused at first. Fortunately, Harry anticipated this and he attached a note. The note explained that it was not a book, rather a book holder. If she opened it and set a book in it, it would absorb it. It could hold up to two thousand volumes of all sizes and the cover would hold an index of all the texts it held. She needed only to tap the name of the text she wanted with her wand and it would come to the top and she could read it. Hermione was very impressed. Ginny had gotten her a very pretty sundress with a note saying that Hermione needed to dress up more often as she was very pretty.

When they finally got to the end of the pile, Harry, Ron, and Ginny having sent gifts to Hermione's parents as well, Hermione had one gift left before getting to her family gifts. It was labeled "To Grace, From Damien". Hermione smiled as she went to opened it.

Damien had gotten her a mug, like a coffee mug. It was black on the bottom and gradually faded to dark purple and from there it faded even further until the rim was a delicate, light purple. Her favorite colors; he remembered. The mug was not empty however, as it was filled with a bag. Inside the bag were various ingredients, including what looked to be crushed Oreo pieces. Hermione was confused until she noticed the corner of white paper peeking out from behind the bag. She pulled it forward and found it to be a recipe for Oreo Hot Chocolate. She laughed. It was a combination of two of the things she had told him she liked. It was perfect. Hermione set her mug off to the side before turning to her parents.

"Family presents time?" They nodded. This part they did in turns traditionally. "Dad, how about you go first?" He obliged.

"Oh, Hermione, this watch is great!" He grinned as he put it on. "I really needed a new one."

"Yeah, I noticed." Once her dad had opened his present from her mother, a new tie and an iPad, he turned to his daughter.

"Hermione, you go next."

Wanting her gift for her mother to be opened last, Hermione was glad that her dad had suggested she go next. Her dad had gotten her a silver picture frame in the shape of a heart that said "Daddy's Girl" and had a picture of the two of them when Hermione was six or so in it. He also got her a necklace; it was a simple silver chain with a pendant in the shape of a Hershey's kiss that said "Kisses" on it. Hermione hugged her father tightly. Her mother had given her a jewelry box with various pieces of jewelry in it already. All the pieces looked old, as did the box itself. Her mother explained.

"This box, and the jewelry in it, has been passed down in my family, from mother to daughter, for many generations. Each owner adds a new piece of jewelry to it before passing it on. I added my bracelet that I wore when I married your father. I hope you get to pass it on to a daughter some day."

Hermione was beyond touched. She knew, deep in her heart, that if it hadn't been for the cancer that she probably would have gotten it for a wedding present or upon the birth of her first child, but she loved it. It was a bit sad, but she didn't let that get to her. She hugged her mother as tightly as she felt was safe, given her mother's weakened state.

"Thanks mom, it's perfect. Now, it's your turn. Open dads' first, mine last."

Her mother complied. Hermione's dad had gotten his wife an appointment at a Day Spa that was near the hospital. He had worked it out with the doctors to make it possible for her to enjoy a day of pampering. He had also written her a letter. It was really long, around four pages, and Hermione never found out what it said, but it had her mother crying and reaching out for a hug. Hermione blushed and looked at her gifts for a minute as her parents enjoyed a private, romantic moment. They were such teenagers sometimes. Once they were done, Hermione's gift to her mother was the only one left.

Her mother unwrapped it slowly. Once it was entirely unwrapped she stared at the cover for a minute. The cover was a picture of the three of them, a few years back, dressed in their Sunday best, right before going to church for Easter.

"Since we are the only ones in here right now, you can press the button on the top to open it, if there are other Muggles around when you want to look at it you should press the button on the bottom instead. You'll see why." She smiled at her mother as she pressed the top button and opened up the book.

Hermione was rewarded with a small gasp as her mother saw the moving photographs. Her parents looked through the whole album together in silence for a few minutes while Hermione looked on. Finally, her mother looked up with tears in her eyes. Her father's eyes were glistening as well.

"Oh, Hermione, this is wonderful. How did you do this? I know some of these times we did not have a camera."

Hermione explained the process of memory photography to her parents while hugging her mom. They spent most of the rest of the day just going through the album, photo-by-photo, and reminiscing about each memory. It was the best Christmas Hermione could remember, despite all the tears.

Back at the castle, where he had decided to stay over Christmas, Draco Malfoy sat on the couch in the Heads' common room. He had set up a tree in the corner of the room and had the house elves provide enough food to last all day. Being a Slytherin and a Malfoy on top of that, he didn't get many presents. Blaise and Pansy had sent him stereotypical gifts of decadent chocolates from Blaise and the best fruit in the wizarding world from Pansy. His house elves at the manor had surprised him by sending him a well preserved and protected gift of their best homemade chocolate cake with a note telling 'Master Malfoy' to have a good Christmas and thanking him for being so good to them. Draco was surprised, but it was not unwelcome. He got raspberry chocolate and Oreos from his pen pal, which he found amusing. He had told her that he like raspberries, that he had a sweet tooth, and that he would have to try Oreos 'someday', so it was all very well thought out. It made him feel better about his gift for her.

Last, but certainly not least, he got a gift from Hermione. He had been hesitant to send her one, not wanting to appear more investing in their odd friendship than she was, but after the whole pre-Christmas ordeal with her crying all over him, he decided that his cover was blown anyway. He was pleasantly astonished that she, too, had felt they were close enough to give and receive gifts. She had sent him a very fancy kind of tea. He had immediately asked a house elf to make him a cup. It tasted like a blissful blend of chocolate and a cappuccino. She had included a note that called him a 'tea obsessed freak' with a small smiley face drawn next to it. Draco smiled despite himself.


	10. Separation Anxiety

Chapter 10-Separation Anxiety

**AN: Please read and review. Warning- this is a sad chapter. I cried while writing it. I thought I should warn you in case any of you are overly sensitive to this stuff, it's ok. If you want to skip this chapter for some reason, I suggest you read through when Hermione goes home from the hospital. The rest is sad. I'm sorry.**

_Dear Grace,_

_Thanks so much for the chocolate and Oreos. I will admit, Oreos are good. I tried them dipped in milk as you suggested. You should have warned me about them melting! I left it in the milk too long and it suddenly disintegrated and I had to start all over with a new one. _

Draco paused while writing a letter to Grace. He had written a fair few that break, even knowing that they would go unanswered for the most part. He couldn't help it. Hermione was at home with her family, so he had no one to really talk to. He talked to Pansy and Blaise often enough, but it wasn't the same.

Hermione had taught him, slowly and subtly, how to have real conversations. He had grown to really enjoy talking about everything, explaining his day, discussing what was most recently in the paper, everything. He had even, very slightly, started talking about _feelings_ and stuff, though not too much. With Hermione gone he needed someone to talk to. If he was completely honest with himself, he was lonely. But he was rarely honest with himself, so it was ok.

In any event, Draco had grown to depend on communication on a deeper and more sophisticated level. In order to fill this need he sent a letter to Grace nearly every other day. He sincerely hoped she wasn't going to start thinking of him as clingy and needy. He wasn't. He was just bored. So he told himself. He didn't write much, just often.

Hermione sat in the chair closest to her mother hospital bed. Her mother was sleeping, so she decided to read the latest letter she had gotten from Damien. He certainly wrote her often enough. She liked it though; it kept her grounded. She knew that there would be a new letter every other day. It was almost like clockwork. In a time of such uncertainties, not knowing if her mother would be ok or not, she appreciated any little hint of a routine, and without her daily chats with Draco, she needed some form of conversation that didn't revolve around treatments and medicine. She admitted, it wasn't really a conversation, since it was entirely one sided, but she would take what she could get and she really didn't have the time nor the energy to reply to all of Damien's letters.

Plus, the more he wrote to her, the more his 'voice' seemed familiar. The way he wrote, his word choice and sentence composition, it rang a bell. She knew it sounded stupid, analyzing the grammar and sentence structure of her pen-pal's letters, but they just sounded so much like someone she knew. She couldn't put her finger on though. She had her suspicions however. She was nearly positive that he was a Slytherin. His attitude and preferences just felt like a Slytherin. She didn't mean that in a derogatory way, merely that she knew many Slytherins and his attitude was reminiscent of them.

Besides, he had to be friends with Draco Malfoy. She knew it couldn't be a coincidence that Oreo Pie was served for the first time at Hogwarts shortly after she told her pen-pal that it was her favorite desert. Draco had been in charge of food, so her pen-pal must have approached him about it.

She was brought back out of her thoughts by her mother's doctor entering the room.

"And how are you feeling today Mrs. Granger?"

Hermione listened as her mother answered the daily questions about pain level and what-not. It didn't sound good.

"Well, I think we are going to take you in for some tests, just to see if the treatment is helping you at all."

With that a few nurses came in and helped her mom into a wheelchair and took her away. Hermione hadn't moved the entire time. She just sat in her chair, letter held loosely in her limp grip, staring at the empty bed.

Draco was sick of moping around. He was willing to admit that he missed both Hermione, and a pen-pal that could respond. He had isolated himself in the Heads' common room for too long. He made his way down to the Slytherin common room.

"Hey Draco, very long time no see. What in the world have you been up to? Got a secret girl you want to tell me about?" Blaise wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as he looked at Draco over the back of the sofa.

Draco frowned at him and gave him no response. He took a seat in one of the armchairs by the fire, looking over at Pansy and Blaise as they sat on the couch.

"I've been reading and doing homework. It's NEWTS this year you know, so I have a lot to do. Plus, head's duties. What have you two been doing?"

Pansy grinned and Blaise just snorted.

"I have been sending letters to my pen-pal almost every day!" Pansy was uncharacteristically bouncy where she sat, unable to stop herself from smiling in pure joy. "He even sent me a Christmas present! I mean, I sent him one too, chocolate. All guys like chocolate. He sent me a homemade scarf! And there were matching handmade mittens and a hat to match. They are all maroon and super cute!"

"That great for you Pansy, glad you like your guy." Draco couldn't imagine being glad to get a homemade scarf; then again, he couldn't imagine Pansy being excited about getting a handmade scarf. "Wait, why are you happy about that? Don't you want labels and brand names? That's what you always told me to get you for Christmas."

"Well," her forehead scrunched up a bit in thought, "I guess it doesn't matter to me as much anymore. I know, from writing to him, that he can't afford all that much. I'm ok with that because he still thought of me and got me a present. Any present counts."

Draco was stunned speechless by this Pansy-transformation. "Well good for you. My pen-pal got me raspberry chocolate and Oreos." Both of his friends looked at him like he was crazy. Blaise spoke first.

"Mate, what are Oreos?"

Draco smiled at this. "I asked the same thing. She had mentioned them once. They are this Muggle cookie. Two chocolate cookies with a white cream in the middle. They are really good, now that I've tried them. They are even better when you dip them in milk, but you have to watch out or they dissolve too quickly for you to eat them." This explanation did not have any effect on the looks he was getting. Pansy spoke for both of them this time.

"You like something Muggle?"

This time Draco frowned. "You know, I'm not as bad as I used to be. I like Muggle things, or, at least, I'm learning to like Muggle things. I don't dislike things just because they are Muggle made. I'm pretty sure my pen-pal is half-blood or Muggle-born, and since I really like her, I have to give Muggle stuff a try."

They seemed to accept this explanation and the three of them spent the day hanging out and goofing off like they used to.

Hermione had had to go home. Sitting in the tub, water up to her chin, Hermione couldn't bring herself to get up and dry off. She was clean. She was numb.

The tests hadn't been good.

The results showed that the Chemo wasn't hurting her mother, but it wasn't helping either. The hospital couldn't afford, and neither could her family, to waste money on Chemo for someone that wasn't gaining anything from it.

They were stopping the treatment.

In books and movies Hermione remembers when, if someone is inevitably going to die, the authority in the movies always promises to do everything in their power to 'make them more comfortable' while they waited.

Waited to die.

The hospital hadn't said those words per say. They had advised her father and mother that there really wasn't much they could do for her anymore and that they were welcome to stay, but it was just as easy to set her up, with everything she needed, in her own home. They had agreed to wait until the next day and then they were going to bring her mother home. It just wasn't how Hermione had pictured her mother leaving the hospital, still sick, still dying.

Hermione let herself sink below the water's surface. With just the length of her hair touching the surface she waited. Holding her breath she opened her eyes. She closed them again. Nothing. She felt nothing. She should feel. She should be having trouble, wanting to reach the surface, wanting to breath in air, proof that she's alive. She didn't. Want all that, that is. She did rise to the surface again and take a deep breath. She finally got out of the tub, toweled herself off, and drained the tub. She sat on the edge of the large, white tub, watching the water as it sank lower and lower. She watched it reach the bottom, swirling like a tornado or a cyclone until it was gone.

With the tub empty she returned to her room and put on her pajamas. She didn't have the will to wear anything more clothes-like. She did nothing for hours. Finally, exhausted and yet unwilling to sleep, she fell asleep where she sat, her head lolling down onto her desk.

Her mother came home the next day. They moved her in to the guest room, since it was on the ground floor. Hermione had rarely left her mother's side when they were at the hospital. She had been constantly holding her mother's hand, sleeping in the chair next to her bed, head resting on the edge of her mother's hospital bed. Conversely, with her mother home again, Hermione could barely stand to be in the room with her for more than an hour. Seeing her mom, sitting upright in that bed, covered with the familiar pink floral comforter Hermione had always seen on that bed, Hermione couldn't deal with it.

In a hospital there is the assumption that the sick person there is getting help and will get better. At home, the scene was eerily reminiscent of when Hermione was nine and her great Uncle had gotten sick over Christmas. He had told them not to bother taking him to the hospital, since he was ninety-four. He stayed in the guest room. He was in a cemetery now.

Even with her aversion to that room and her strong desire not to watch her mother die, Hermione knew what she had to do. It was like that album she had given her mom for Christmas, they needed to make all the memories they could before they couldn't make any anymore. So she stayed by her mother's side, painfully aware that she was truly practicing 'bedside manner' at what was literally going to be her mother's 'deathbed'.

Hermione was supposed to go back to Hogwarts in three days. She didn't know what to do.

"Hermione dearest," her father drew her attention away from staring at her bowl of cereal up towards his face as they sat together at the breakfast table. "I was wondering if you would be able to sent a letter to your Headmistress asking to stay home until…until…" He seemed to be unable to finish that sentence. Hermione interrupted so he wouldn't have to.

"Of course, I was planning on doing that soon anyway. I'll just go do that right now." She quickly rinsed her bowl, put it in the dishwasher, kissed her father on his forehead, and went up to her room.

_Dear Headmistress,_

_Thank you so much for allowing me to leave school early. This extra time with my mother has been great. However, her condition is quickly deteriorating. I am writing to ask you if I could potentially have some more time off. I was hoping to stay with my parents until such time as I am no longer needed. I am confident that I can make up the work in no time and if I am gone too long I can always repeat the year. However, I really feel my time is best spent here while my mother is still with us. _

_Thank you._

_Sincerely,_

_Hermione_

Professor McGonagall sent back a reply nearly immediately, granting her as much time as she needed and telling her how very sorry she was that Hermione had to go through all this.

Hermione couldn't take her mind off of the phrase, 'go through all this'. She wasn't convinced that that was what she was doing. 'Go' implies movement. 'Through' implies coming out the other side. 'All this', like it was a stack of annoying paperwork or a messy bedroom in serious need of cleaning. Hermione felt more like she was sitting in hell. She was watching on the sideline as _her mother_ went through hell. With her mother there was movement, a destination. It was a pretty crappy destination and Hermione didn't want her to get there, but she was going to come out the other side, the side Hermione wasn't on.

But _Hermione_ certainly wasn't 'going through all this.'

Hogwarts started again. On the worst day of Hermione's life her friends and classmates were rushing to Platform 9 ¾ to get on the train and head back to school. They were probably chatting happily, relaying all the fun that Christmas break always brings. They were probably showing off their favorite presents, buying snacks off the trolley for the ride to school. Those who had never left school were probably groaning, quickly doing whatever homework they had left until the last possible day.

Hermione hadn't been with them. She had been clutching a horribly cold hand, hoping beyond hope that if she held it long enough that it would be warm again.

Days later, Hermione sat on her bed, staring at her shoes, waiting. She heard what she was waiting for, her father's voice, calling to her from the floor below.

"Hermione, honey, we have to go."

There was that word again. 'Go.' Movement. But Hermione wasn't moving. Her legs might have been, her body was, she physically left her room and went downstairs to get in the car. But Hermione wasn't there. Hermione was back in her tub, under the water, hoping to feel something, hoping to feel anything other than numb.

Hermione smoothed her hands down over her simple black dress. It had a swoop neckline that reached just up to her collarbone. It didn't have sleeves, but she wore a light sweater over it. It came down to just past her knees and she was wearing flesh colored nylons and a pair a black flats. She looked appropriate for the church, and for the occasion.

Taking her seat in the front row Hermione turned to see who all had come. She recognized some of her mom's friends from the dental practice. She saw all of her family. She saw family friends. Looking at their faces, she couldn't take it. She turned her head back to the front and squeezed her dad's hand.

Everyone stood as the pallbearers brought in her mother's casket. They set it up on the altar and took their seats. The priest stood and addressed everyone.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of an amazing woman." Normally Hermione thought it was dumb for priests to talk like that, like they knew who they were talking about, but her mother had always been involved in the church. She and her mother sang in the church choir together up until Hermione went to Hogwarts. So, he knew whose life he was talking about. "Jean Granger was a great dentist, devoted member of the church, loving mother and wife, and so much more."

Hermione tuned out most of the priest's speech. She didn't want to hear it. Eventually the organist started to play 'Amazing Grace', her mom's favorite song. Everyone sang along.

Hermione tried to sing along. She only knew the first two verses by heart, so she had the hymnal open to the proper page. But words got fuzzy. She blinked, trying to clear her vision. It partially worked, as the tears that had been blocking her eyes cascaded down her cheeks. But more just filled their place. Then, not only couldn't she read the words, she couldn't sing. She had always had a pretty nice singing voice, but she couldn't force out any sound. She had never really understood the phrase 'choked up' before, but she suddenly had a very personal understanding of it.

She stopped trying to sing and just stood there crying, listening to everyone else finish the song without her. She took that time to send a prayer up to her mom.

The service went by quickly after that. They stood again as the pallbearers carried the casket out to the hearse again. Then they all bundled up against the winter weather and filed into their various cares to form the funeral procession as they followed the hearse to the cemetery.

If anything was said as her mother's casket was lowered into the ground, Hermione didn't hear it. She was just staring at the headstone, mesmerized by the clean, clear writing that stood out on the stone. She shivered, but she wasn't cold; she couldn't be cold; she didn't feel.

But then, she did feel. She felt a hand slip into hers, gripping her tight. She didn't bother turning to look at her father, opting to stand there, staring at the ground as it swallowed up her mother. Everyone else left. Soon it was just her and her father. He hadn't even tried to get her to leave, or turn to him, or talk to him. She was eternally grateful. She just needed quite, peace, time to think, to absorb the enormity of what she had just witnessed. She just needed someone to hold on to.

She finally turned towards her dad, about to ask him for a hug. It wasn't her dad. She briefly caught a glimpse of her dad as he got in his car, waved at her sadly, and drove off. She looked back up at the blonde savior of man who stood in front of her, looking at her calmly with his icy eyes. But they weren't cold; they were sad; they were compassionate; they were understanding. She had never expected to see those emotions in his eyes, of all people, but she was so glad he was there.

She didn't ask him why he was there. She didn't ask him how he knew to be there. She didn't ask him why it was him and not Harry or Ron or Ginny. She didn't need Harry or Ron or Ginny. She had him, and she needed him. So, for once in her life she was selfish. She took what she wanted, what she needed. She just looked up at him momentarily before wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder.

Like when she had gotten her letter telling her that her mother was sick, he just held her, letting her cry all over him.

In the middle of the cemetery, standing at the foot of her mother's grave, they stood, him holding her just as much as she held him. Temporarily wrapped up in their own world where nothing mattered other than the fact that she was hurting and he could help.


	11. Just Keeping Busy

Chapter 11- Just Keeping Busy

**AN: Please read and review!**

Hermione didn't stay at home any longer than necessary. She couldn't. She felt bad, leaving her father home alone, but she had very supportive neighbors and Mrs. Weasley had taken to her father like he was one of her children. She made sure he ate, slept, and did at least one normal human thing each day, from playing a game of chess to watching a television program. Hermione felt she could leave him and he would be fine, thanks to Mrs. Weasley.

Draco had spent the night in the guest room of Hermione's house before leaving the next morning. They never really talked about it, but Hermione was sure that when she got back to Hogwarts he would explain how he knew about the funeral and all. She was grateful and wasn't sure she would have been alright without him, but that didn't mean she didn't want a full explanation.

While Hermione was spending a few days at home to recollect herself, Draco was busy arranging things for her return.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting?" Professor McGonagall looked up at him from her seat behind her desk. Draco sat in one of the two armchairs that were in front of her desk and looked her in the eyes.

"I want to ask a favor. I know it's a bit unorthodox and not exactly what you had intended, so I came to ask permission before I arranged anything."

Professor McGonagall looked at him with interest and a slight hint of wariness in her eyes. "What do you want to do exactly?"

"I want to ask the house elves to keep the kitchen in the Heads' common room stocked with food for meals. Just for a few weeks, so that when Hermione gets too overwhelmed by everything, she doesn't then have to deal with hundreds of people in the Great Hall. It can be a bit much sometimes, without the added burden of dealing with the loss of a loved one. So I want her to have the option of just eating in the common room. You know, for some peace and quiet."

Professor McGonagall not only looked surprised, but more than a bit confused. "May I ask why you suddenly have such concern for Miss Granger's welfare? Not that it's a bad thing, I'm just curious."

There was the tiniest hint of a blush across Draco's cheeks. "Well, Hermione and I have sort of become friends, kind of, since working together as Heads, and I helped her through the aftermath of the funeral. I saw how torn up she is. I know what it's like to lose a parent, not to death and not a parent I really loved, but I lost my parents all the same; I just want to make it a bit easier for her if I can in any way."

Professor McGonagall nodded her head, thinking. "Alright, I approve of this plan. However, considering the circumstances, I would ask that Miss Granger not eat completely alone, even when in the common room. She may invite her friends to join her, or you may join her, so long as she is not alone. I, too, worry for her well being."

Draco agreed to these terms and went to the kitchen to arrange it with the house elves.

Hermione finally returned to Hogwarts. Her dad had been sad to see her leave, but he knew she would be returning in a matter of months. Plus, he needed to get back on his feet himself.

As soon as she got back Hermione headed to her dorm and put away everything she had packed with her. Then, not wanting to find herself idle, she decided to finally write back to Damien. She sorted through all the letters he had written over her time away and composed this response.

_Dear Damien,_

_Sorry I haven't responded before now. Calling my past month or so crazy would be the understatement of the century. But I don't really want to talk about that. You had asked my in one of your letters whether I'd rather dance everywhere or sing everything. I would have to say I'd rather sing everything. I like to think I have a pretty nice singing voice, but I can't really dance all that well; I'd love to learn someday though. Additionally you asked what my favorite thing to wear is. I love wearing dark jeans paired with just about anything. Jeans are casual by nature, but I feel the darker they are the more it looks like I actually dressed up without me having to dress up. They are like, a sneaky outfit, outwardly dressy and secretly casual. _

_Thank you so much for the Christmas present, I really appreciate it. I'm glad you liked the chocolate and Oreos. I did attend the ball and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was Oreo Pie, I definitely ate a slice. The ball was amazing, I was so impressed; it was lots of fun too. _

_So, we are allowed to tell each other what house we belong to now. Rather than just telling, since we usually ask, I thought we could guess first. I don't really peg you as the Hufflepuff type. So you are either in Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I think you are in Slytherin, since I know that the Head Boy, Draco Malfoy, picked the dessert list and I don't believe that the Oreo Pie was a coincidence, so you probably know him. He mostly only associates with other Slytherins, so that is my guess. What house do you think I'm in? _

_Finally, my questions to you: what do you think your boggart form would be, or if you know what it is, then what is it? And would you rather never know what time it is or always know the time but always have to be late? _

_Forever,_

_Grace_

Hermione sent off her letter to Damien. She then didn't know what to do. She needed to be doing something because doing nothing was _not_ an option. So she headed off down the stairs to find someone to give her something to do. The common room was mostly empty and Hermione left in search of a plan.

Hermione ended up going in search of all of her professors and collecting the homework she had missed by both leaving early and returning late. It was a lot of work, but that only made Hermione happy. Each professor expressed their condolences and told her to take as much time as she needed to make up the assignments, but time wasn't what she needed. She needed to keep busy, so she assured all of them that she would have them turned in by the end of the week at the latest.

Taking all of her assignments Hermione went to the Heads' common room to work in peace. Spreading out all of her assignments in an orderly fashion Hermione called a house elf to make her some hot chocolate for while she worked.

Draco pushed open the portrait hole that signaled the entrance to the Heads' common room, intent on taking a nap or just relaxing. Instead, he found Hermione, bent over a piece of parchment, surrounded by intimidating stacks of homework. Draco stood, studying his fellow student for a few moments, unnoticed. She had lost weight, clearly having missed meals while she was away. She looked different. It wasn't like people say in stories, like the light had left her eyes, or that her eyes were dead. Rather, it seemed like her eyes were more alive, but in a sad way. Like they were overwhelmed with seeing, having seen too much. Her forehead was scrunched in thought as she scribbled away with her brown speckled quill. Her normally perfect posture lacking as her rounded, slumped shoulders betrayed her utter exhaustion and stress.

She finally looked up briefly, glancing at the clock on the wall above the fireplace, and noticed his presence. There was a brief moment of awkwardness as they both remembered how their friendship had changed when he showed up to comfort her in the cemetery. And then, she smiled a weak, faint smile in his direction.

"Hey." She set down her quill to give him her full attention.

"Hey, I didn't know you were back yet. You seem to have a lot of homework to do. Are you sure you don't want to just relax, you're probably stressed and I'm sure the professors would understand." He had moved forward to take a seat at the table with her, careful to not disturb her orderly stacks.

Hermione started shaking her head as he spoke. "No, I have to do my homework." She quickly kept talking before he could interrupt her to contradict her. "I can't relax, I can't be idle. Being idle lets my mind wander. Being idle lets me remember more than being busy does. I need to be busy; I need to always have something to do. So, for now, that something is homework. Once I'm done with all of this, I will have to find something else to keep me busy." She looked even more stressed in that moment, her face begging him to understand her needs.

Draco sighed and pulled his book bag over towards him, opening it up. "I can understand that need. At least let me keep you company. It's not like I don't have homework to do too, we can help each other, like usual."

Hermione loved the idea of doing something just like she had done before her mom got sick. She liked the idea of reentering her routine and getting back to the way things were before. She had to have a routine. Draco enlarged the table so that he would have space to work, pulled out his own homework, and got started. They worked in relative silence for the better part of two hours. Finally, Hermione broke the silence.

"How did you know?" She didn't look up from her work, not wanting to see him as she talked about the past few weeks.

For a second Draco was confused, not sure what she meant. Then he realized what she was talking about. "I was worried; you didn't come back to school. So I went to Professor McGonagall and explained that I was worried about you. She told me you would be staying away for a few more days or so, it was unclear. I explained that I knew the most of the situation, compared to everyone else. I convinced her and she told me that your mom had passed and you were staying for the funeral. I told her that despite what you might think, you shouldn't be alone for that. I mean, yeah, you had family, but you needed someone else, a friend."

Hermione was nodding in understanding as she listened to his story, still not really looking up, but not continuing to work on her essay either.

Draco continued, "She didn't know the specifics, so I sent a letter to your dad, asking permission to attend and asking the when and where of it all. He agreed with me and told me all about it. I let you go through the service with your dad; I thought that was more family related part of the whole service. I was sitting in the back row. I watched you throughout the part at the cemetery and you seemed alright, but then you didn't, you looked lost. So I went over and you know the rest" Draco seemed a bit nervous, twirling his quill between his fingers and looking away from Hermione.

He stared at the fireplace as he said, "I'm sorry if you didn't want me to go or if I overstepped friend boundaries or something. I'm not used to having friends that have real emotions, other than anger and indifference, so I wasn't sure. I just didn't want you to be alone in it all. I didn't tell anyone, since it isn't my life to tell about."

Hermione finally looked up at him, though he was still facing the fireplace. She stood up and walked the short distance to his chair, kneeling next to him. He turned to look at her, confused. When their eyes met she did that tiny smile again and leaned in to hug him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head in the crook where his neck met his shoulder.

Draco took a second to process what was going on before he moved to wrap his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him. He stood up, carefully bringing her to a standing position with him, making the hug less awkward. He rested his cheek on the top of her head, nuzzling her hair a bit. They stood like that for a few minutes. Hermione then removed her head from his neck to rest her chin on his shoulder, not loosening her arms from their clasp on his neck.

"I'm not mad. I didn't know I would need it, but I did. Thank you, for being there. It meant a lot to me. So, thanks." She squeezed him extra tightly as she said this.

Then she loosened her grip so that she could lean back and look up at his face. He, too, loosened his grip, allowing her to pull away slightly. When she looked up at him they both realized how close their faces were, their noses nearly touching. She looked into his eyes. Then she leaned up, kissed him on his cheek, squeezed him once more, and let him go, returning to her seat and picking up her quill.

Draco stood, shocked, for only a second before recollecting himself and returning to his own seat. They went back to their nearly silent work for another few hours.

Eventually dinnertime arrived. As Draco had anticipated, Hermione looked anxious about going down to the Great Hall to eat. Draco tugged on her arm to get her attention and she turned to face him.

"I talked to Professor McGonagall and asked if, for a week or two, there could be food stocked in the kitchen in here. This way you can eat meals in here if you ever need to, to avoid the chaos and overwhelming nature of the Great Hall. She approved the plan and I went and cleared it with the house elves. They were more than happy to help. So you could always eat here if you want."

Hermione looked surprised, glancing towards the kitchen.

"Of course," Draco continued, "Professor McGonagall also stipulated that you not eat alone when you eat in here. So you could invite your Gryffindor friends to eat dinner with you tonight if you want, or I could stay, whatever you prefer."

Hermione looked torn.

"Well, would you mind, for tonight? I mean, I just don't want to have to have to explain everything to them just yet. I will, of course, I just can't, not tonight."

Draco nodded. "I understand. I'll stay, it's fine. What do you feel like eating? I'm afraid we have to make it ourselves, but we have tons of ingredients and cookbooks. Besides, how hard can it be to cook, right?"

Hermione went to take a quick shower as Draco said he could handle dinner. She had given him a few suggestions as to what she would be happy to eat that evening. Apparently it was very hard to cook, as Draco attempted to make meatballs and gravy with egg noodles. After screwing up a few times he asked Hermione if she could help. She had just finished getting dressed and come down, so she was more than happy to keep herself busy by teaching Draco how to cook the Muggle way.

"No, Draco, take it off the heat!"

Draco looked at her, confused, as the pot with the boiling water and pasta started to boil over.

"Use those pot holders, yeah, those square bits of fabric, and pick up the pot on the stove, by the handles, and move it over to one of the non-lit spots."

Draco did as he was told; a bit embarrassed that she had to talk to him like he was a little kid, but, at the same time happy. He could see, as she ordered him around and tried to prevent a fire, huge mess, or other such disaster from occurring, she let herself forget for a half hour or so, smiling and laughing. She giggled at his funny faces when he did something wrong. She even laughed outright when he tried to sample the pasta only to discover that it was hot. He opened his mouth, waving his hand like a fan in front of his mouth and shouting 'iths hot, iths hot', not able to fully pronounce his words with his mouth hanging open. He then proceeded to run to the sink, spit out the pasta, and stick his mouth, open, under the faucet while turning on the cold water.

Eventually the food did get cooked and they sat down to a nice, home cooked meal. While they ate Draco talked, distracting Hermione with stories of what Hogwarts had been up to since she left. He talked about hanging out with Pansy and Blaise; he told her about how he had been so bored without their talks, letting her see a tiny bit of his more sensitive side as he talked about his feelings. He told her how, being bored, he wandered around the castle one night and ended up getting in an argument with one of the portraits on the fourth floor. The portrait seemed to be under the impression that Draco bleached his hair, claiming that it was not natural for anyone to have hair that blonde.

Obviously Draco was appalled by this accusation and proceeded to argue that his hair was one hundred percent natural. The portrait started taking a poll of the other portraits in that corridor, trying to see which theory was more believed. This only served to piss off Draco even more, as other portraits agreed that it looked bleached. The argument was never resolved, as Draco eventually just got so angry that he yelled, "yeah, well at least my hair is real, yours is painted" and, realizing that he was arguing with portraits, returned to his dorm room.

As silly as most of Draco's stories were, they served their purpose of distracting Hermione enough that she let loose for the duration of the meal. It had been a while since Hermione had been so relaxed without being numb. She realized how much she had missed feeling, once Draco started putting away the dishes and the numbness returned.

**AN: You guys are, by far, the best readers ever. The overwhelmingly awesome response to the last chapter touched my heart. I'm so glad you all liked it, despite its sad nature. I just want to take a second to recognize all the readers who have gone through this experience. I am so sorry for your loss and hope it gets better and that you reach a state where you can remember those lost without feeling the loss as strongly as in the beginning. I hope this story helps you in some way. Anyway, thank you all and please continue to be super awesome by reviewing this chapter!**


	12. A New Plan

Chapter 12- A New Plan

**AN: Please read and review!**

The next week passed in much the same fashion as that first day had. The morning after her first day back Hermione woke to find a letter from Damian on her bedside table.

_Dear Grace,_

_I'm so sorry that you've been having a hard time. I hope it's getting better. Despite your obvious personal troubles, you mind is as sharp as always. Yes, I am in Slytherin. But I'm having a harder time pinpointing what house you are most likely in. You are smart, so I'm sure you'd make a great Ravenclaw. Your tone when mentioning Hufflepuff in your last letter makes me lean away from saying you are in that house. Your answers to our questions hint that you are brave and loyal, meaning you could be a Gryffindor. I don't know which seems more likely, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, so I'm just going to guess one. I guess…Ravenclaw, since you are so logical and smart. Plus, the tone of your last letter didn't sound like me being a Slytherin would be the worst thing in the world, making me think you probably aren't a Gryffindor. haha. _

_You have moved on to much more personal questions I see. Not that it's a problem. I don't know what my boggart is, but I guess I would expect it to be either the Dark Lord returning, or a horse. I know, you're probably laughing, since those two things don't really seem to be on the same level, but I'm terrified of horses. I have been since I was little. It means I also dislike horse-like creatures such as Thestrals, Centaurs, and Hippogriffs. I would rather never know what time it was than always be late despite knowing the time. I could learn to feel the general time by the sun or something, but I value punctuality and can't give that up._

_Now, what is your favorite subject? I realized we had never asked this, I guess so as to prevent judgment of what house we might be in, but since you now know, I don't think that matters. Would you rather only remember what you've been learning in school while you are taking the test, or forget it all while taking the test but remember it all other times? Knowing how smart you are I'm betting this isn't an easy question, since one choice means failing all your classes. Enjoy the decision. _

_Yours,_

_Damien_

Hermione was indeed having troubles choosing. She hated the idea of failing, but she also recognized that school was supposed to be preparation for the outside world. She put off writing a response for a few days.

Hermione finally met up with Ron, Harry, and Ginny and explained everything that had happened since she had left. They hugged her a lot and expressed their sympathies, berated her gently for not telling them so that they could have been there for her at the funeral.

Hermione explained that she had wanted to deal with it on her own and that her dad had been there for her. She left out that Draco was there, they didn't really need to know that. Draco had been being a saint since she had returned from the funeral. He kept her very busy. After they had caught up on all of their homework and Heads' work they had gotten behind on, he came up with a new idea to keep her mind occupied.

"Hermione, I had an idea for a fun activity we could plan and I wanted to know what you thought of it." Draco was seated on the couch in front of the fire with Hermione sitting cross-legged on the floor across the coffee table from him. They had been working on writing up a new chart for prefects' patrol rounds.

"Go ahead." 

"Well, we had said how we wanted to do events to build inter-house unity. The past events have been really successful and all. I thought we could do something for Valentine's Day. We always have a Hogsmeade weekend around then, so I thought it might be nice to do something else for a change. I hadn't come up with a specific idea yet. What do you think?"

Hermione's face broke out into a huge grin. "That sounds great, and I have the perfect idea." She sat up on her knees and leaned forward towards Draco. "At muggle high schools they sometimes have this dance that's really different. It's sometimes called a Sadie Hawkins dance, sometimes as Turnabout. Basically, it's a dance where the girls have to ask the guys to go with them, rather than the other way around. It's cool for girls to have to freak out about asking guys as compared to the way things usually go."

Draco smiled. "That sounds great. Let's write up a draft of the idea so we can get it approved by McGonagall right away."

They got to work on planning the Valentine's Day Turnabout dance.

Fuelled by the energy Hermione got from having a new project, she finally got down to writing her response to Damien.

_Dear Damien,_

_Ravenclaw, really? You were so close. I'm in Gryffindor. Sorry if I threw you off by not caring that you're in Slytherin. I'm trying out that whole, inter-house unity thing. Anyway, now you know. _

_Horses, really? I admit, I was surprised. I like horses well enough, and I really like Hippogriffs. I can understand fearing Voldemort, he was pretty terrifying. _

_My favorite class is Transfiguration. I feel like it's the most magical. I love the idea that one thing can suddenly become something else. Though I really like all my classes, so it's hard to choose. Charms is up there too, most useful subject I think. Your second question is, indeed, really difficult. I put off writing this letter because I didn't want to answer it, haha, see how brave I am. Anyway, I finally came to my decision, though it hurts me to say this. I would rather forget it all for the exam but know it for the real world. I despise the idea of failing anything, or even just getting anything below an O. However, if the war taught me anything at all, it was that we need to know our stuff. There are real dangers out there, though fewer than in past years, and we all need to be prepared. I would suffer failing my exams if it meant I was prepared for the real world. _

_I just wanted to say thanks for all the letters you wrote me over break. They really helped. It is getting better, thanks for your concern. _

_I'm afraid I don't have any deep questions for you this time. I'm getting a bit impatient to know who you are; I feel like I already know everything about you except for your name. I guess one thing I don't know much about you is your family life. So, my question is: what is your family like? I think that's a loaded enough question as is, so I won't force another on you at the same time. _

_Forever,_

_Grace_

Hermione had meant what she said. She felt like she really knew Damien. She couldn't imagine what he could possibly tell her that wouldn't fit her mental image of who he was. She wasn't sure who, specifically, he was, but she had a persona in her mind. She had tried, unsuccessfully, to go through all the Slytherins one-by-one and judge whether they could possibly be Damien or not. None of them really seemed to fit. She could, potentially, see Blaise or Draco fitting, but even that was a stretch. She was at such a loss.

Gryffindor? Draco had been sure she was a Ravenclaw. Having read the most recent letter from Grace he was so confused. He only knew one Gryffindor really well, and that was Hermione. Other than her he didn't know them very well. Trying to picture who he could be corresponding with was difficult. The person didn't necessarily have to be in his grade, which just widened the possibilities. He was hoping it wasn't that girl, Lavender, she didn't seem smart enough. He knew there was a Patil sister as well, but he didn't know much else about her. He prayed to any higher power that it wasn't the Weasley girl.

Pondering his response Draco put the letter with all of his others and left his room. He had a lunch date with Hermione in a few minutes. Well, not a date. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on with them lately. They got on really well and he actually felt ok admitting that he thought of her as a really close friend.

But she had kissed him.

On his cheek, granted, but still, she had kissed him! He didn't know how to process that. For one, this was Hermione Granger he was talking about. Secondly, she had been upset and whatnot, so it seemed excusable. And finally, she hadn't mentioned it or repeated it since. Draco wasn't even sure what he wanted her to think or do. He was a typical guy, he liked attention from girls, and he and Hermione really meshed well. But he felt a slight reluctance to try and take it any further, since he had someone else in mind.

Grace had turned out to be one of the best things to happen to him in a long time. She was smart, funny, they got along great. She didn't push subjects if he indicated a reluctance- he tried to not think about her most recent question, and she seemed to really understand him and like what she understood of him. He really liked her. He knew it would still be a few weeks before they were allowed to reveal themselves to each other. But something in him didn't want to pursue anyone else until he knew whether she was a viable option or not. He didn't wanted to be somehow involved with Hermione when he learned who Grace was incase Grace really was as amazing as he was starting to think she was. He wanted to have a chance with her.

So he did nothing. H projected 'just friend' vibes at Hermione whenever he could and read between the lines of Grace's letters to try and figure out who she was.

McGonagall approved of their idea for the turnabout dance instantly and they got to organizing the finer points.

"I think it should be formal. It's a dance, why wouldn't it be." Hermione didn't see why dressing up was always such a problem for guys.

"I think it would be relaxing and encourage more unity if we had a casual dance for a change." Draco would try to avoid wearing a monkey suit with his very last breath.

"Uhg! Ok, fine. How about semi-formal? Guys don't have to wear jackets and maybe not even ties if they don't want, but girls can wear nice dresses if they want. I think that's a nice compromise. Right?" Hermione was unwilling to give up a chance to get all dolled up.

"I guess that'll work. How about decorations? I don't want everything to be pink. Pink is a bit overwhelming at times and I wouldn't mind a relatively pink-less Valentine's Day. And I know I'm not the only one who thinks that."

"I think we could put the focus on red. Make the color scheme of red, white, and black. It still says love and Valentine's Day, but is a bit more tolerable for guys, you think?"

"Yeah, that actually sounds like it would look really good." Draco's voice sounded surprised.

"Gasp, I had a smart idea!" Hermione's tone, on the other hand, was dripping in sarcasm. "I have to warn you, that happens sometimes." They both chuckled a bit at that.

"All right, I concede. You have brilliant ideas all the time. Sorry." The sincerity of his apology was a bit compromised by his grin and laughing eyes.

"Well, what do you think of having the dance start later? That way we don't have to worry about food, people will have already eaten dinner at the regular dinner time. We can focus on a large and decadent dessert table."

"That should work. Any specific desserts in mind?"

"Yeah. I thought we could have, in the center of the dessert table, a tower of cupcakes. Cupcakes are easy for any occasion because they can be decorated for any theme. Ours could have white frosting with black and red designs. Then we could have edible roses and cover the table in edible red rose petals."

"I like the idea of edible flowers. And if the cupcakes are chocolate then I'm in."

"We could have both chocolate and vanilla, to please everyone."

Draco looked skeptical at that. "Who doesn't like chocolate? I'm not sure we want people like that to be at the dance." The smile in his eyes ruined his perfect 'serious look' act.

"I like chocolate and vanilla" Hermione said, laughing, "so you can just do it to please me. How's that?"

Draco full out smiled at that. "I guess, if it's to please you. I mean, I clearly do everything just for you."

Hermione gave him a solid nod. "As well you should." They shared a conspiratorial grin. "Anyway, we could easily set the great hall up so that it would give the whole event a sophisticated air that Valentine's Day things often lack. We could probably get professor McGonagall to transfigure the candles into large black chandeliers to fit the occasion. The tables could have white vases with red roses. It's going to be great!"

With a theme in mind, the planning took off on wings, every detail being argued and eventually compromised.


	13. Brain Teasers

Chapter 13-Brain Teasers

**AN: Please read and review, you guys are the best!**

With her mind so occupied with planning the Valentine's Day Dance, Hermione's subconscious ran ramped, recognizing any and all clues as to who Damien could be. Soon she found herself recognizing traits of Damien in every Slytherin she saw. Well, not Crab and Goyle, but all the other Slytherins. Her mind started compiling lists of the guys that had the most in common with Damien. The biggest problem was how secretive and private most Slytherins were, she didn't have many clues to go on.

"Hey Draco," Hermione walked into their common room one evening in late January, they had planned to meet to finalize the finishing touches for the dance. "I have one final suggestion for something that could add to the whole event."

Draco gave her a worried look. "I always get nervous when you get your 'I have a brilliant idea' face on. What more could you do to the student body? You're already making girls ask guys from a different house." They had made that decision the previous week. It may be a Valentine's Dance, but it was still an inter-house unity event. If a couple had been together for over two months then they could get special permission to attend together, but other than that it was to be an integrated dance, in terms of houses.

"I swear, this is something everyone is going to like. What if we got the carriages brought to the main doors of the school. People could go on horse and carriage rides in the evening, those are so romantic. We could ask Hagrid what would be best, just using thestrals like usual, or bringing in actual horses for the event. I think thestrals freak people out a bit, since they bring back slightly unpleasant memories."

Draco's eyes had blown wide open as Hermione had been talking. He attempted to calm his heart-rate and regulate his breathing back to normal. "I'm not so sure about that idea. I don't think the professors would want students out of the castle alone without supervision. Who knows what they would get up to!" Though he would never admit it, Draco's voice raised almost an octave as he spoke.

Hermione gave him a clearly skeptical look. "Now, while that is a valid concern, there are plenty of spells that can be put on the carriages to make it all work and keep the students safe and appropriate. What's your real concern?" She looked at him with a, 'I-can-see-into-your-soul-and-see-your-deepest-darkest-secrets' look.

He caved.

"I might have a slight aversion to horses and thestrals."

"What do you mean 'aversion'? I mean, I know you got mauled by a Hippogriff that one time, but that was your own fault, you were rude to him."

Draco looked minutely peeved at that.

"I'll have you know that that creature was wild and crazy and attacked me for no good reason. I was traumatized. Ever since then I've disliked, maybe even feared just a bit, horse-like creatures."

A disapproving look was sent his way. "Buckbeak had every reason to scratch you. You insulted him and he could understand you. He's a perfectly nice Hippogriff and I like him a lot." Hermione glared at Draco until he gave her a look that communicated his agreement to her terms. "Now, are you telling me that you are scared of horse-like creatures?" Hermione's brain was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Draco looked away from her and she noticed a faint blush gracing his cheeks. "Yeah. Now, if you handle all the details and I don't have to have any part in the process at all, I think your idea will work. You'll just have to get McGonagall's approval. I'll talk to Professor Flitwick about putting the spells on the carriages. Let's make a list real quickly of what spells we will need him to put on them."

Though they left the 'Draco's scared of horses' topic and continued working, Hermione's mind didn't let that thought go. It was too much of a coincidence. Pieces started falling into place.

Draco left Professor Flitwick's office with a small smile on his face. He had done a good days work, getting the professor to agree to perform all the spells they needed to have on the carriages to get McGonagall's approval. He needed to find Hermione to tell her they were all set to go. He figured she would be in their common room, as they had practically lived in there recently, so he headed there.

As he opened the door he could smell the delicious smell of tea. He could tell just by the scent of it that it was the tea he had gotten Hermione for Christmas, raspberry shortcake. It smelled decadent and amazing.

He rounded the corner to see Hermione asleep on the couch. She seemed to have been working on her homework. Her mug of tea was sitting on the coffee table, still a bit warm, if the scent was anything to go by. She hadn't drunk any, which was probably why she wasn't awake.

Draco did a double take. He had looked at the mug and then diverted his attention to Hermione's sleeping form. He turned back to the mug and stared in awed astonishment. The mug was black on the bottom, fading to dark purple, and then fading further to a pale purple along the rim.

He remembered picking out that exact mug for Grace just before Christmas. There could only be three potential scenarios.

One, Hermione could just happen to own the same mug, it was possible.

Two, Hermione could be friends with Grace and Grace didn't like the present so she gave it away to a friend. Unlikely, since Grace had said in her letter that she liked it, but, again, possible.

Three, Hermione was Grace and had gotten the mug from Damien for Christmas. Most likely, but not 100% positive.

Draco needed to think about things. He went back to the Slytherin common room and up to his room to think about everything he knew about Grace and everything he knew about Hermione.

The next week flew by in a flurry of homework. The Professors were intent on them being more than prepared for the NEWTS, so they were starting with the extra assignments early on. This distraction was very welcome to both Hermione and Draco, as both were dealing with confusing thoughts and potential realizations.

Hermione had long since returned to eating in the Great Hall and a lot of the numbness was gone, though she was by no means over it and probably never would be. She had gotten a letter from Mrs. Weasley telling her that her father was doing really well and had even gone back to work. She was learning to live with the pain, remembering her mother with fondness and love rather than regret and overbearing sadness. Draco was really helping to keep her happy.

She even got a response from Damien.

_Dear Grace,_

_I sincerely apologize if I gave offense by suggesting you were a Ravenclaw, my mistake. Clearly you must be brave, to be asking about the family life of a Slytherin. I think you might have bitten off more than you can chew, just saying. And I'm glad my letters helped in any way. _

_So, my family. There isn't too much I can say without giving my identity away, which would be premature. I have the typical Slytherin family. My father was a death eater during the war, he's in Azkaban now. My mother lives home alone now, since she didn't really do anything. I know it might be hard to believe, but my mother loves me. My father did in his own way, once upon a time. The war and the Dark Lord kind of corrupted him. Not that he wasn't always dark; he was just more human when I was younger. The Dark Lord's return sort of brainwashed him. My mother married for love, so they were in love at one point, he just changed. _

_So until fourth year I had a relatively typical family. My parents spoiled me and never failed to indulge me. Things changed with the Dark Lord's return. I don't know how much you know about the war, but the tone of your last letter made it sound like you were involved and understand how terrible it was. Well, all death eater children felt the pressure from their parents and I was no exception. _

_Now, neither my mother nor I communicate with my father and we never use our right to visit. I try to spend my free time with my mom, since I'm sure she gets a bit lonely. Other than that there isn't much to say. _

_Sorry if that's a turn off, I know my history isn't the brightest, but it is what it is and I've come to terms with it all. _

_How about you? I know you had some family or personal issues over Christmas, and if you don't want to talk about it that's fine, but anything you can tell me about your family?_

_Yours,_

_Damien_

Hermione had expected such a response, but now she was looking for specifics. The details were conspicuous in their absence. He said that saying any more would give it all away. She wasn't sure if that letter supported her theory of Damien being Draco or not. She needed more data to come to a solid conclusion.

Even though they were all really busy, after finishing all the planning for the dance, Hermione scheduled another friend evening with Harry, Ron, and Ginny. She missed them all a lot. She saw them in class and in the common room, and had been eating meals with them for a few weeks, but she was always busy. In class she was taking notes, whenever she was actually in the Gryffindor common room she was doing homework, it was only during meals that they spoke to one another, and even then she was often using that time for additional studying.

They agreed to meet in the room of requirement, so they wouldn't be disrupted by the noise of the common room and so that Draco could still use the Heads' common room if he wanted to escape the Slytherin common room.

"Hey guys!" Hermione was the last to arrive, as she felt the need to tell Draco she'd be gone all evening and had had trouble finding him.

"Hey Hermione." Ginny motioned for Hermione to share the couch with Ginny. Harry and Ron were in the two armchairs that the room had produced, all the furniture surrounding a roaring fireplace.

"So, first things first, what houses are your pen pals in? I totally forgot to ask before now!" Hermione looked at her friends' faces as their expressions changed. Ron and Ginny didn't look too pleased, but Harry seemed happy.

"Mine is in Ravenclaw, so she must be smart. She was excited to learn I was in Gryffindor, she says she knows lots of Gryffindors." Harry turned to Ron, smirking.

"Oh shove it Harry." Ron looked a bit reluctant to explain. "My girl is a Slytherin. I'm not sure what to think about that. We get along really well, but still, how many nice Slytherin girls do you know?"

"Valid point Ron, but don't worry, my guy is in Slytherin too. Just think about the options in that!" It wasn't Hermione who had said that. Apparently Ginny's pen pal was also a Slytherin guy.

"Wow Ginny, mine's a Slytherin guy too. Maybe they are friends and we'll all meet up and be one happy friend group!" The others laughed at her sarcastic tone. Hermione didn't feel like telling them her suspicions, since she could so easily be mistaken.

They went on to talk about everything and anything. Hermione felt so relaxed. It took her mind off how crazy her final year had been up to that point. It also distracted her from the letter she knew that she still had to write to Damien. She didn't really want to talk about her family.

The idea that Damien was actually Draco really helped her in that she could just pretend that they were one in the same. This made writing the letter a lot easier, since Draco already knew everything. She didn't feel quite so exposed.

Draco nearly jumped out of his skin a few days later when his next letter from Grace appeared on the bathroom counter right after he got out of the shower. He didn't dare touch it until he was completely dried off and partially dressed. He took it into his room and sat on his bed in his boxers to read Grace's response to his personal question.

_Dear Damien,_

_I kind of expected your response, so no turn off there. Everyone has a part of their past they wish they could just delete. I know I do. _

_You were right about my family being a bit of a touchy subject right now. I'll try to tell you about how they were up until this year. It will be different now, so I'm not sure what our dynamic will be from now on. _

_My mother has always been my best friend. I love my dad and all, but I am just like my mother only shorter. My mother was a fun, loving individual. She loved to cook, but her real passion was baking. She would sometimes get in a baking funk and just bake all day. My dad would pick me up from school on his way back from work and we would walk in to a house filled with baked goods. I've eaten so many cupcakes in my lifetime it is ridiculous. _

_My mom liked to garden, but she never had a green thumb. She mostly planted stuff that was already in bloom, waited until it died, and then replanted with something else that was already in bloom. She loved flowers too much to just give up. _

_My dad, he likes to fish. We used to go fishing all the time during the summer; we never caught anything! haha. He also likes to play video games. He's like a teenager in that way. He gets so sucked into his games sometimes that I can say something and he won't respond for a full five minutes, no joke, and then he'll tear his eyes away from the screen and ask, "You say something?" He loves having breakfast food for dinner, a trait he passed down to me. _

_Anyway, that's my family. _

_Um…I don't know what else to ask. I mean, I have a guess as to who you are, but I'm not sure what questions would confirm it for me. Are you excited for the Valentine's Day Dance? I mean, I know you have to wait and see if someone asks you, but I'm sure someone will. If someone asks, are you planning on going?_

_Forever,_

_Grace_

Draco knew, then, that he had been right in his third possible scenario. Hermione and Grace were the same person. The evidence was overwhelming. The way Grace spoke of her mother in past tense but her father in present, the mug Hermione had that night, the way him being a Slytherin hadn't bothered her, how smart Grace seemed considering she wasn't in Ravenclaw. It couldn't all be coincidence.

Draco was surprised by how happy this realization made him. He'd been stressing about liking both Hermione and Grace, now he didn't have to worry. He could flirt with both of them at the same time and not feel guilty. He was a bit nervous as to how Hermione would react to finding out it was him, but for the most part he was sure she would be pleased. She had kissed him that once. And they were friends. And they got along so well in both letters and real life. It was silly to worry. Draco worried anyway.

Intent on starting himself in the right direction to woo Hermione, since Malfoys always get what they want, Draco decided to head over to the Heads' common room and see if Hermione was there.

She was. Hermione was working on her homework in front of the fire. Draco headed over to the couch and sat next to her, their thighs mere inches away from touching.

"How's the homework coming?" He smiled at her as she pulled her head out of the book she was looking through to give him a glare.

"How are you not swamped? There's so much work!"

Draco laughed. "I don't know. I'm putting off a few assignments for this weekend, but other than that, I guess I just have more free time than you do. You do kind of keep yourself busy."

"I want to get the long term assignments done before the dance so I don't have to worry about them and can just enjoy myself. The dance is in two weeks. It will sneak up faster than you think." Hermione looked down at the book in her lap, fingering the corner of the page. "Has anyone asked you to the dance yet? I saw a few girls getting up the courage to ask guys earlier today. I'm glad it's working out so well. I hope the rule doesn't make it so no Slytherin guy can get a date. I was hoping some girls would have the courage and the heart to ask them." Hermione mentally told herself to shut up, she was rambling.

"Well, I haven't been asked by anyone yet, but the rule is fine. I know at least four or five guys across the grades who already have dates. Most are going with Ravenclaws. I guess the Ravenclaw girls realized that they had better chances that Gryffindor or Hufflepuff girls at having the guy say yes. I do know one guy who is going with a Hufflepuff though. I was really surprised. But don't worry; it's working out just fine."

Hermione looked up at him briefly before returning her eyes to her book. "I was hoping, you know, since we've become such good friends, and the date has to be from a different house, and we are the Heads and all, that, well, that maybe you would want to go with me to the dance?" Hermione could practically _hear_ herself blushing. A pale hand reached into her line of vision and squeezed one of her own hands.

"I'd love for us to go together. I'm sure we'll have more fun with each other than we would with anyone else. Besides, do you expect someone else to ask me? I'm Draco Malfoy; I'm scary. No one else has the open mind or bravery that you do. So you're stuck with me." Draco grinned at her as she looked up into his eyes, smiling in return.


	14. Before the Dance

Chapter 14-Before the Dance

**AN: I'm sorry. I'll go hide behind a rock for taking so incredibly long to post the next chapter. You guys did an amazing job of reviewing, again, and it made my heart happy. :D This story has been hard to write lately. I guess it's because I have so many plans for once they openly know they are each others' pen pals, but the in between and big reveal are a bit fuzzy. Anyway. Read the note at the end. Love you all! On with the show-**

"Hermione, that's a terrible idea!" Ginny argued, very uncomfortable with Hermione's latest 'mad-genius-scheme'.

"I think it's a perfect solution. You don't really like anyone you can ask, and I know that no one has asked him and it's highly likely that no one ever will. You wouldn't want him to be unable to attend just because girls are intimidated by him, would you? I'm sure he would say yes. You're pretty and you aren't very 'anti-slytherin.' Plus," Hermione reasoned, "you're friends with me and everyone knows I'm willingly going with Draco Malfoy. So what's the big deal if you ask Blaise?"

"Because he's Blaise!"

Hermione gave Ginny a disapproving look.

"That's a horrible way to think. You know that your pen pal is a Slytherin and yet you don't really seem to judge him based solely on that information. Maybe Blaise is the same: Slytherin on the outside, awesome on the inside. You'll never know unless you ask him."

Ginny still didn't look convinced, so Hermione pulled out her last resort.

"Could you do it as a special favor to me? Draco's told me about how Blaise doesn't show it, but he's worried no girl will have the guts to ask and he'll have to miss one of the last dances of his final year here. Please? I'll help you pick out a dress, and on the day of the dance I'll do your hair and I'll paint your nails for you and I promise not to complain when you take an hour and a half to calm my hair…" Hermione was planning on just continuing to ramble on for a few minutes, but luckily that wasn't necessary.

"All right!" Ginny interrupted her. "I'll do it. But you owe me big. Bigger than doing my hair and nails. And if he ends up being a dud at the dance you have let me take Malfoy out to the dance floor at least twice. I may not be his biggest fan, but Malfoy can dance and I want to have fun."

Hermione jumped to accept the terms and conditions.

"Of course! Thanks, you're the best!"

Later, Hermione told Draco of Ginny's intentions to ask Blaise.

"Why would she do that?" Draco had his 'what-is-happening-to-the-world-I-knew' look on his face.

"Well, for one, I asked her to. Also, she doesn't like any of her options in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. She waited too long and all the tolerable guys are taken. Third, she's nice and knows that it's unlikely anyone else will ask him and she doesn't want people excluded. Finally, she wants to go. I told her I thought he would say yes and she needs a date. So please, prepare him for her to ask and convince him not to turn her town. I think they would have fun."

Draco agreed, but he was still suspicious of the look on Hermione's face.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Hermione blushed and chuckled.

"Well, you might also want to convince him that it is in your best interest for him to be fun and actually dance while they are there together."

Draco was confused, "why would it be in _my_ best interest?"

Hermione gave a sly grin. "Because I promised Ginny that if her date was a dud on the dance floor that I'd let her steal you for a couple songs. So unless you want to dance with Ginny, Blaise needs to say yes and mean it."

Draco gave an overly dramatic 'gulp' and nodded, his grin ruining his 'scared' impression.

Since the dance _was_ semi-formal, the weekend before the dance was a Hogsmead weekend for girls to go buy dresses. Hermione was going with Ginny, naturally, and both were looking for more formal dresses that just teetered on the edge of semi-formal. Why waste a chance to get all fancy?

"Hermione, all of these dresses are terrible! The only good ones are ones I'm sure someone else is already wearing. I don't want to match anybody." Ginny was using an extra-annoying voice for her complaining, hoping to prompt Hermione to think of an alternative.

Hermione sighed. She agreed whole-heartedly with Ginny. She wanted to look perfect for Draco, especially if he turned out to be her pen-pal.

Hermione's face took on its 'I'm deviously scheming' look and Ginny began to worry about what she had gotten herself into.

"Well," Hermione started, speaking quietly, "we don't have to be back in the castle until later this evening. That gives us several hours of free time to shop. I bet I could get us to Diagon Ally and back without anyone being the wiser. We could even try muggle London if we needed to. What do you think?"

Ginny readily agreed and Hermione took them to the shrieking shack. She decided that the sounds of disapperation would be less noticeable from the famous haunted house. She then wrapped her hand around Ginny's arm and with a resounding 'crack' they were gone.

"Lord Hermione, this was such a great idea!" Ginny's voice was a bit muffled as both girls were drowning in dresses. Diagon Ally had many more choices and the girls were a bit overwhelmed by all their new options. "How does this one look?"

Ginny came out of the dressing room in a short red one-shoulder dress. It was tightly fitted and looked great on her.

"It makes your body look great, but I don't think it's really all that special. I would keep looking for something better but keep it in mind as a fallback."

"That's a good idea. What do you have one?"

"It's a red cutout dress, but I don't like the way the cutout parts fall on my, so I'm not going to even bother coming out."

The girls went through several rounds of similar discussion about all the dresses they tried on before Ginny came out in the perfect dress.

"Ginny, that's stunning. It's magical, literally." The dress was, again, a tightly fitted red dress, but it had two shoulder pieces. The fabric was like velvet and the shoulder straps were made of magical roses and went from mere buds to fully bloomed roses and then repeated. The cycles were slow, taking a few minutes to completely bloom each time.

"I love it too; I think this is the one."

It was another half-hour before Hermione felt like she had found the one.

"What do you think of this one?" Hermione asked as she stepped out of the changing room. She was wearing 50's styled black halter dress. The halter strap was thick and had a single red rosebud on one side that was just like those on Ginny's dress. It had a sweetheart neckline and a thick, red elastic belt around the waist that clipped together in the center. The skirt flared out and was about knee-length.

"That looks amazing." Ginny said.

With Ginny's approval Hermione decided to get the dress and they both went to pay for their purchases. Ginny adorned her dress with silver lace up heels. The lace up part looked like a silver snake wrapping itself around each of her calves. They were even charmed to slither and move up and down her calves like real snakes.

Hermione's shoes were clear bottomed stilettos with red ribbon wrapped around her toes and then the same red ribbon criss-crossed over her foot to wrap several times around her ankles.

The girls took their purchases and Hermione apparated them back to Hogsmead with no one the wiser. As they were sitting in The Three Broomsticks having a drink before heading back to the castle Ginny looked at Hermione curiously. Hermione gave her a 'what?' look and she explained.

"I was just thinking about how much you've changed this year."

Hermione looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"You just broke the rules. It wasn't even a small, unimportant rule. Not leaving Hogsmead is a legit rule. I'm impressed. Shocked, but impressed. You are breaking out of your shell more."

Hermione blushed in response and quickly finished her butterbeer.

The evening of the dance was stressful for most of the students. Since everyone was attending with someone from a different house, many students were really all that close with the person they were attending with and, thus, were nervous about how it would all work out. It also meant there were a lot of bizarre couplings, since the girls were the ones who had had to have the courage to ask the guys.

Blaise had said 'yes' to Ginny, secretly relieved that someone had finally asked him. The only girl who had had the courage to ask 'The Harry Potter' to the dance was, oddly enough, Pansy Parkinson. Though, she had stipulated that it was just because she could probably tolerate him better than most other non-slytherin guys and that Potter shouldn't be getting ideas about them ever being together. Luna had ended up asking Ron to go with her, and of course, Hermione had asked Draco.

Hermione and Ginny had planned to get ready together in the seventh year girls' rooms, and in the end they decided to invite Luna as well. The last member of their 'getting ready group' was an odd addition.

_Several days before the dance-_

"Hey, Hermione, can I ask a favor of you?" Draco's voice forced Hermione to look up from her homework over to where he was pouring himself some more tea.

"Sure, what?"

"Well," Draco looked nervous, which in turn made Hermione nervous. "Since you made me get Blaise to ask Ginny to the dance, I thought you could return a similar favor and ask Pansy to get ready with you guys."

Hermione looked at him confused and skeptical.

"Well, you see, Slytherins might be getting better and the whole inter-house unity thing, but a Slytherin going with a Gryffindor is still pretty looked down upon. Blaise and I have each other and I have authority, so it's not so bad for us, but Pansy has been getting some backlash or asking Potter. I don't think the other girls really want her getting ready with them. She might say no, but I was hoping you would at least, maybe, genuinely invite her?"

Hermione thought about it for a second.

"Sure. If she's a friend of yours then I should get to know her, especially now that she and Harry are going together. I think it's a great idea and I feel bad for not considering it. Luna, Ginny and I are going to take get ready in my room and I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I invited her. Maybe, if you wouldn't mind, I could ask Harry and Ron to let you and Blaise into the common room once you are both done getting ready in your room. This way all the girls' dates will already be here when we get done. Sound ok?"

Draco breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, that sounds great. I'll try to convince Pansy to say yes when you ask. Thank you."

Hermione stood up and went over to where Draco was standing. "Of course, it was very sweet of you to think of her." Hermione leaned up and gave Draco a kiss on the cheek before stealing his mug of tea and returning to the couch and continuing her homework.

Draco just stood there, stunned, again. Not only had she kissed him again, but she had stolen his tea! He chuckled to himself as he went to talk to Pansy.

_The next day, still a couple days before the dance-_

"Hey, Parkinson, can I talk to you really quickly?" Hermione jogged a bit to catch up to Pansy as she left Potions class.

"What do you want Granger?" Pansy knew what was coming, but that didn't mean she was going to make it any easier on the girl she had spent a large portion of her school career tormenting.

"Well, I thought, since you are going to the dance with Harry, and I know, you want nothing to do with him afterwards. But anyway, since you are going with him, I was wondering if you wanted to get ready for the dance with Ginny, Luna and I in my dorm? Harry and Ron would then let Draco and Blaise into the common room when they are done getting ready, so they can pick us all up from there when we are done. You don't have to, but I thought it would be a great way to get to know each other. Also, Ginny is amazing at doing hair and Luna knows some great nail charms."

Pansy looked at Hermione skeptically for a minute or so. "I guess that would be acceptable. Since I'm sure I will have to suffer your company during the dance anyway, since I chose to attend with Potter. Very well, I will get ready with you and your friends. I think I may feel charitable enough to share my make-up spells with you all."

And so it was settled, Pansy was going to be getting ready for the dance with Hermione, Ginnny, and Luna.

_Back to the evening of the dance, Hermione's room-_

"Pansy," Hermione called, they had quickly decided that first names was easier, "what spell did you use to get your mascara to sparkle like that, it's beautiful!?"

Pansy was doing everyone's make-up while Luna went around doing everyone's nails, Ginny did everyone's hair, and Hermione performed the necessary charms on their dresses to keep them clean, ironed, not too hot and not too cool, etc. The room was a little chaotic, but nobody seemed to mind.

"I'll teach it to you later." Pansy responded to Hermione's inquiry. "But you'll have to teach me the spell you are using to get the dresses to stay ironed but not starchy."

Hermione agreed and they continued getting ready. Luna's dress was floor-length. It was silky and fuchsia. The skirt was soft and free flowing, darker fuchsia at the bottom and got progressively light the closer to the waist the fabric was. Her waist was accented by a beaded strip that encircled her waist and the top was horizontal rushing of the same fabric, but a mix of the darker and lighter fuchsias. She wore simple silver flats with it.

Pansy had surprised everyone with her dress choice. They sort of expected her to, despite the theme, wear Slytherin black. Well, she hadn't. Now, she wasn't wearing Gryffindor red either, nor was she wearing pink. But really, who in their right mind would expect to see Pansy Parkinson in pink, or worse, a Gryffindor color. No, Pansy had chosen an elegant, floor length, strapless, deep purple colored dress. It was very simple. It flowed freely downed to the floor and the only accent to the dress was a single round cut-out on the left side of her waist. The cut-out was edged in silver thread and she wore simple silver stilettos. She, of course, then added a silver snake necklace, to prove she was still a Slytherin.

So, in the end, two of them had short dresses while two had long dresses. Ginny did their hair in a mix of up, down, and half-up-half-down styles, depending on what best suited their faces and dresses. Luna did their nails to match their dresses, adding silver to Ginny's, Pansy's, and her own, but not Hermione's. Hermione's were plain, blood red, with a black rose on each of her ring fingers. Pansy kept their make-up light, simple, and elegant. When they were done Hermione sent her Patronus to Harry, asking if they were ready and whether Draco and Blaise had arrived yet. Harry's Patronus returned to tell them that everyone was there and ready.

"Well, ladies," Hermione turned to address the other three girls. "It seems like it's time to go down and meet our men." The other three nodded and they descended the stairs to the common room.

**AN: A few issues that have been pointed out to me:**

**I realize now that Ginny and Harry were dating at the beginning of the story. Let's say that they amicably parted ways romantically at the beginning of the new school year. They had fun and are still good friends, it just didn't click for them, a summer fling. **

**At the beginning of the story Draco said he was all alone and his whole family was in jail, but his letter talked about his mother being home alone while he was at school. How about we have it such that in October or so, the Ministry finally ruled on Mrs. Malfoy's case, she had been in jail for suspected elicit activities with Death Eaters, but in fall they found her innocent, so now she lives at the Manor by herself.**


	15. Turnabout

Chapter 15- Turnabout

**AN: Please read, enjoy, and hopefully review! Thanks!**

Ron, Harry, Blaise and Draco made a very strange group as they waited in the Gryffindor common room for their dates to come downstairs. After Harry sent up his patronus they gathered at the foot of the stairs in a line, looking up the stairs to catch the first glimpse of the girls.

Draco was the first to see them, instinctively knowing exactly when and where to look the minute that Hermione exited the dorm room door. No words came to him as he watched Hermione descend the stairs. Draco was never so glad that Hermione was Grace as in that moment. She look like an angel and he wanted nothing more than to wrap her up in his arms and tell her that he was Damien.

Ron, Harry and Blaise were having similar reactions, though less extreme in some cases. Blaise had never taken the time to realize how stunning Ginny was, since she had always just been the Weaslette. But the dress she had on, it showed off her killer legs and her curvy shape in a way that made his eyes go wide. Harry was startled to realize that he had never seen Luna looking so feminine, even as he offered he arm to Pansy. Ron was offering his arm to Luna as he stared, wonderingly, at the three beautiful ladies who had come to accompany them to the ball. He wasn't counting Ginny, of course, rather trying not to even look at her in such a tight dress. He liked to pretend she was still a little girl.

Draco was the first to regain his voice. "You look absolutely stunning Hermione. That dress is amazing."

Hermione blushed as she wrapped her hand around his arm and they moved toward the exit to the common room. The other boys soon said similar lines to their dates as the group moved as a whole out of the common room and down toward the great hall.

Draco and Hermione held back, wanting to enter last in order to best greet the school and start the ball. As they were waiting for all of the students to enter the Great Hall, the Headmistress pulled them aside.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, I was hoping I would be able to catch you before the dance started." Headmistress McGonagall told them.

"How can we help you Professor?" Hermione inquired.

"I just wanted to inform you that, due to the plethora of persistent queries from your peers, I am adding a component to the night tonight."

Both Draco and Hermione perked up in interest.

"I know that not all students are here tonight, so I will be making rounds to all the common rooms to tell those who did not attend and pass out the forms."

McGonagall explained the plan to the two of them as they listened avidly. They promised to make the proper announcement at the beginning of the dance and make the forms available for all who wanted to give it a try. That dealt with, Headmistress McGonagall wished them luck with the start of the dance and went off to visit the house common rooms.

"Well," Draco said, turning to face Hermione once Professor McGonagall had left, "that should be interesting."

Hermione smiled in reply.

Finally, it was time to officially open the dance. Hermione and Draco entered last, arm in arm, and the entire group of students turned to look at them.

"Welcome all." Hermione began. "I'm so glad to see that attending with a member of a different house did not stop you all from coming." Hermione was right, in that there was a very good turnout, considering the rules to attend. "Before we start the dance, the Headmistress wanted us to tell you the exciting change in plans, in terms of the penpal program."

Here Draco took over.

"Enough students have been pestering the Headmistress to know who their penpals were, as these students sincerely believe that they already know who they are corresponding with. In response to this, the Headmistress is giving us a chance to test this theory."

Hermione continued, "Next to the punch bowl is now a table with a stack of forms, quills, and a giant bowl. If you think you know who your penpal is, or just want to give it a guess, then, at some point tonight, you need to head over to that table. The form will ask for your name and the name of the person you think is your penpal. The form is charmed so that you cannot lie about your name, so don't even try."

Again, Draco took over, "Once you have filled out the form, fold it in half and place it in the bowl. The bowl is also charmed, so don't try to take out other peoples' forms, you won't be able to. At the end of the night the bowl will compile the results with those of the similar bowls placed in the house common rooms for those who did not attend the dance, and it will find any matches."

Hermione brought it to a close. "The bowl will then compare any matches with the actual list of penpal pairings. If there is a pairing where both parties were correct in guessing the other person as their penpal, then that pair will be added to the list of pairs who guessed correctly that Professor McGonagall will receive in the morning. She will send letters informing the pairs of their successful guesses in two days time, so do not worry about it tonight. If one person is correct in guessing their penpal, but their penpal does not also guess correctly or does not participate, then nothing happens. The same is true if both parties are incorrect or do not participate. Please enjoy the food and have a great time!"

With that final send off, Hermione signaled the band, and she and Draco started off the dance with a waltz.

After their first dance together, Hermione and Draco decided to head over to the guessing table and fill out their forms. They hoped that showing that they were doing it would convince others to do it too. They dragged their whole group with them.

As soon as they got to the table, everyone suddenly got very secretive, covering their forms with their hands and quickly slipping them into the bowl. But, everyone filled out a form. Even Blaise and Pansy filled out guesses, albeit grudgingly. Hermione had been right in her assessment. Once their group left the table there came a pretty steady trickling of couples going over to place their guesses.

That done, Draco teasingly complained and whined until Hermione agreed that they could wait to dance until after they had eaten.

The decorations were everything Hermione had hoped for, black, white, and red. It had a very classy, sophisticated, and yet romantic feel to it all. Plus, Hermione's dress matched perfectly.

One part of the dance that did not go as planned were Hermione's conversations with Draco. She had expected to have each conversation with him only further solidify in her mind that he and Damien were one and the same. Instead, she found herself doubting her assessment more and more with every sentence he spoke. In fact, everything he was letting slip made it seem like he knew who Damien was and was trying to sneakily get her to realize who it was.

"Well," Draco told her while they were eating, "I hope you like the desserts, because I didn't find the time to ask Blaise to help me again. You know, for the dance just before Christmas he helped me decided what to ask for. We both went to enough stuffy parties in our childhoods to know the good desserts from the bad. Some of his suggestions were new to me and I wasn't sure about them, but they seemed to go over well."

Hermione assured him that the desserts were fine, but couldn't help wondering if that meant that Blaise had been the one to suggest the Oreo pie.

"Yeah, I figured going with what Blaise liked would be best, he has the biggest sweet tooth. It's part of why he loves this time of year, since Easter means chocolate and candy. Though I had to seek outside advice for cake choices, as Blaise is really much more of a pie person."

All of these facts lined up with what Hermione already knew about Damien. And, of course, Blaise was a Slytherin and a Death Eater's son, both of which Damien was. She felt the need to fish for more information.

"You and Blaise are really close. Do you guys have a lot of interests in common?"

Draco took the bait offered to him. "Yeah, he loves flying, even though he isn't on the team, so we head out to the pitch to fly sometimes."

Yet another fact that fit with Damien, though that one was probably true of most of the guys at Hogwarts. Still, it was looking more and more like Blaise could be the one. Her guess would be wrong in that case, as she had put down Draco.

And so that night went. Most students found time to place a guess in the bowl and Hermione spent her time with Draco trying to get any information she could about Blaise. Hermione certainly had fun, Draco was a great friend regardless, but she had so hoped he was Damien. Faced with the reality that she might have to choose between then Hermione wasn't sure what she would do. She decided that nothing needed to be done for a few more days, so there was no harm in forgetting about it for a while.

Draco was having a blast at the dance. Since he knew that Grace was Hermione, he figured he might as well be Slytherin in his way of getting her to realize that he was Damien. First step was to get her to 'realize' that someone else was Damien.

Draco had come up with his plan a few nights before the dance. He chose Blaise as his scapegoat purely for convenience of knowing Blaise really well. He spent the whole dance talking Blaise up to Hermione and he could just see the doubt beginning to build in her eyes. He had only a few more things he had to say for it all to work out well.

When the dance finally came to a close he made his penultimate move; his good night. He stood with Hermione just outside of the Great Hall. They had used magic to vanish the mess and were headed in separate directions to go to bed.

"I had a great time tonight Hermione. Thank you for asking me."

Hermione blushed a little bit and agreed with him, thanking him for being such a great date. Draco bent to kiss the back of her hand and walked a bit away before turning back and calling her name; ever the flair for dramatic timing. When Hermione turned back to him just as she reached the bottom of the stairs he continued.

"I just have to say, you were radiant tonight. I'm not sure I've ever seen you looking so stunning before. You really do look good in that dress, the rose is perfect." Without waiting for a response he turned and hurried down to the dungeons.

Once he was sure he was out of sight he finished off his plan by penning his not and sending it off.

Hermione smiled the whole way back to her room. She was so touched that Draco had said that. She knew he was not generally one to share that much of what he is thinking. She frowned a bit as she thought about how that all complicated her search for Damien's identity. She really wanted it to be Draco.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice the vase on her bedside table. When she went to get into her bed she finally saw it. It was a simple class vase with a single blood red rose and a note.

_Dear Hermione,_

_Thank you so much for a wonderful evening. I enjoyed conversing with you. I must repeat, you were radiant, more stunning than ever before. I thought I would give you a rose, since the one on your dress was so perfect. I hope you enjoyed your evening as well._

Hermione expected, naturally, to see the noted signed "Draco", since it was exactly what he had said to her and she had only really spent her time with him, so who else could write it, but no, it was signed:

_Yours,_

_Damien_

_P.S. sorry I never replied to your previous letter. Yes, I was excited for the dance, I'm so glad you asked me. And thank you for being honest about your family._

Clearly it was Damien, since the ending was such as only he could write, but clearly it was Draco.

Hermione was not nicknamed the 'brightest witch' of her generation for nothing. She realized that not only was Damien actually Draco like she had originally thought, but Draco had played her. He had planned to tell her all along and had just thrown in all the Blaise comments to confuse her and tease her.

She was pleased beyond belief that Draco and Damien were one and the same person, but she knew she needed a plan. Draco had pulled a prank on her, and let it never be said that she does not give as good as she gets.

Payback's a bitch.

First thing the next morning, Hermione penned a quick note to Blaise and sent it off before getting up bright and early to go speak with Headmistress McGonagall. She would need both of their cooperation if she was going to make her revenge plan work flawlessly.

"Good morning Miss Granger, what may I do for you?" Headmistress McGonagall welcomed Hermione into her office and motioned her to the seat in front of her desk. "Is this about the dance last night? I thought it went splendidly."

Hermione smiled in thanks. "I thought so too. It kind of is about the dance, but more about my pen pal."

McGonagall frowned. "You know I can't tell you if you guessed correctly until tomorrow; even if you are the head girl."

Hermione shook her head. "No, well, I guess it would help, but I am ninety-nine percent sure I was correct. The thing is, the guy tried to trick me during the dance. I think he realized I was his pen pal and decided to play a bit of a joke. He talked about one of his friends, saying all sorts of things about him that matched with what my pen pal had said about himself. I think he wanted to throw me off. I had actually started to believe I had been wrong. But once I returned to my room there was a note from my pen pal that confirmed for me that it was who I originally thought."

Despite the slightly muddled explanation, McGonagall was nodding, indicating she was somehow managing to follow the botched story.

"Well, I'm not about to let him think he can prank me without any repercussions. We're friends, so I'm not worried that he'll be upset. What I need from you Professor, is to not send out a note to me and him. If, and I'm assuming we did, if we correctly guessed each other, I ask you to withhold our note announcing that we were correct. Pretend I guessed Blaise Zabini if it helps you to not send it out. If we didn't guess correctly than you don't need to do anything."

McGonagall seemed to be considering it. "Might I ask what this withholding would accomplish?"

Hermione smirked a bit. "I want him to think that I honestly believe Blaise, the friend he was trying to trick me into thinking was my pen pal, is my pen pal. I already asked Blaise if he would cooperate with me on this one. I just want to spend a few days teasing him by hanging out with Blaise and acting like we are suddenly good friends. If we did guess correctly, you can send our letters of notification in a week or so, if that's alright."

McGonagall smiled. "I don't see why not, so long as this isn't some kind of cruel joke meant to embarrass the young man involved."

"No, certainly not. We've become friends throughout the year and I wouldn't jeopardize our friendship for anything."

"But how can you be sure that this young man is even your pen pal if you don't know if you guessed correctly. You said yourself that you were beginning to doubt your guess."

Hermione smiled. "Your system for preventing us from revealing ourselves isn't foolproof. I think the fact that we spend so much time together as friends screwed it up. I am positive it's him, because he basically said so, just not in so many words. Sorry, but when you see the person every day, it's hard to prevent us from figuring it out."

McGonagall nodded her understanding before dismissing her. Hermione then went down to the great hall for breakfast. Not many people were up yet, it being the day after the dance and all, so she was able to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet while eating. The morning post trickled through and with it came a note to Hermione carried by a school owl. Her name was written on the front in an unfamiliar scrawl. She broke the seal and opened it up, reading quickly, and broke into a broad grin.

_Granger,_

_I'm in. He's pulled one over on me one too many times. I'm glad to help get him back. Meet me in the kitchens at noon today and we will work out the kinks of the plan over lunch. See you then._

_~Blaise_


	16. Pranks and Reveals

Chapter 16- Pranks and Reveals

**AN: Please read and review, thanks!**

Hermione rushed down to the kitchens to meet up with Blaise. He was sitting at one of the tables in the back of the kitchens, a large plate of sandwiches, pitcher of pumpkin juice, pot of soup and a variety of deserts laid out on the table in front of him. Hermione raised one eyebrow.

"Trying to eat a whole house's worth before I get here?" She asked him, smiling.

He grinned back at her as he placed a sandwich on his plate. "Nope." He said. "I just thought it best if I got the food from the house elves before you got here. I wasn't sure if they like you or not, considering how you are always trying to free them. I didn't want to suffer hunger all afternoon just because you have issues."

Hermione lightly smacked him upside the head. He laughed and she sat down.

"So," she said. "Let's get to planning. I want him to get nervous. I want him to start believing that I honestly think you are my pen-pal."

"Am I supposed to think you are mine? Because I don't think he'll buy that."

"No. It's much simpler than that. You just have to act like a typical pig of a guy. You'll tell him that you are not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, saying that if I think you're my pen-pal, you might as well play along and see what you can get out of it. Make it sound like you are going to try to play me, or use me, whatever."

"Aren't you worried he'll pound me? You are his friend, outside of the pen-pal thing." Blaise looked like he was the one who was worried.

"No. I think he'll be a bit protective, but mostly I think he'll be trying to find a way to re-convince me that he's my pen-pal. We'll just have to play it by ear."

The unlikely pair spent the rest of the lunch hour concocting plans to have Draco 'catch' them talking, socializing, and making plans. It wasn't going to be a long prank, just a couple days, but they hoped to get him good.

"I was so surprised when Draco indicated to me that you fit the description of my pen-pal. Somehow I just never really considered you as a possibility. I'm glad he talked to me about you."

"So am I. I am more than happy to get to know you better. Letters just can't compare to meeting face-to-face, can they?"

"Certainly not. How about we go find the room of requirement and talk for a while?"

"Sounds perfect."

Draco heard these voices talking as he walked towards the Heads' common room. He planned on doing some homework and knew Hermione would probably be doing the same. He hoped to get to really talked to her for the first time since the dance. Their guesses would be revealed tomorrow, but he knew it was her, so why wait? But the voices confused him. He knew those voices.

Turning the corner his suspicions were confirmed. He managed to just see Hermione and Blaise turning at the end of the corridor, headed in the direction of the room of requirement.

Draco was a bit confused, but it he pushed it to the back of his mind and went to do his homework.

"I had no idea you liked _Hogwarts: A History_. It was one of my favorite books from the moment I learned I was a witch, but it doesn't seem that many people have read it."

Hermione's voice drifted to Draco's ears through the door to their shared common room.

"I know! But it's so useful to have read that before coming to school. I think it should be mandatory summer reading before first year." Blaise's voice responded.

"I completely agree. I tried to convince Harry and Ron to read it, but they always said they could just ask me, so why bother." Hermione enthusiastically replied.

"That's just laziness. Everyone should read it for themselves." There was a brief pause. "Well, I should head back to the Slytherin common room. I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?"

"Of course, goodnight!"

The sound of receding footsteps could be heard as the portrait hole opened and Hermione stepped through. Draco looked up, even more confused.

"Why are you suddenly hanging out with Blaise?" His subtlety was amazing.

Hermione turned to where he was sitting on the couch, her face showing surprise, like she hadn't known he was in the common room.

"Well," she responded, walking over to sit down. "You mentioned at the dance a few things that lead me to believe he might be my pen-pal, so I thought I should get to know him better. He agreed, so we are going to start hanging out together more often." She smiled at him, snuggling up in the chair cushions. "How about you? Do you think you know who your pen-pal is?"

Draco looked shocked, like he hadn't considered she might believe him, despite that later letter. "Um, I think so, but I don't want to tell you just yet." Draco was trying to think on his feet, metaphorically speaking, but he wasn't entirely sure how to handle such an odd outcome.

The next day at breakfast there was an increase in the amount of chatter, compared to most mornings. Everyone was waiting to see if they would get a letter confirming their guesses. As owls began circling the Great Hall, looking for the proper recipients, six students received special black envelopes from owls belonging to the school. Dean Thomas smiled over at Padma Patil as he opened his letter, confirming that they were pen-pals. Ernie Macmillan turned to his friends, excited to show off that he'd been correct when he guessed that his pen-pal was Daphne Greengrass. Finally, Lisa Turpin turned from her place at the Ravenclaw table to give a courteous nod to Theodore Nott at the Slytherin table, as they received their matching letters.

The hall broke out into even more excited conversation as people speculated on who their pen-pals could be, since most people had guessed incorrectly. Draco, sitting next to Theodore, with his black letter, and Blaise, with no letter, stared at his plate in shock. How did it happen that he hadn't received a letter? He _knew_ that Hermione was his pen-pal, so he had guessed correctly. The question was, who had she guessed? Based on recent behavior, he had to assume she had somehow fallen for his teasing and had guessed Blaise. It just didn't make any sense to him.

Blaise bumped Draco's shoulder with his own, breaking Draco out of his thoughts. "Hey," Blaise said, "I guess we both need to keep guessing, huh?" He smiled as he said it, knowing what Draco must be thinking.

Draco nodded absently, "I guess so. But hey, what's been up with you and Hermione lately? You don't honestly think she's your pen-pal do you?"

Shaking his head Blaise answered with a sly grin. "'Course not. But come one, who am I to deny a lovely lady my company? I might as well play along. Who knows, maybe there's something in it for me." Still smiling, Blaise left the table to get a head start towards class, leaving a silently fuming friend behind.

Just outside the doors to the Great Hall Hermione and Blaise met up and couldn't hold in their laughter.

"He looked a bit peeved with you." Hermione mentioned off-handedly, smiling at Blaise. He grinned in response.

"That he was. I bet he's trying to figure out how to fix the mess up that, he believes, is entirely his fault." Blaise turned a bit serious. "However, I don't want him thinking I'm a douche for too long. So I say we bring it up a notch today, have him catch us together a few more times, give him time to fume, and then spill the beans."

Hermione nodded her agreement. "I think that sounds good. That means he's had a few days of confusion to make up for his teasing. It's only fair. Besides, I'm ready to be done with this pen-pal thing and just focus on being friends."

Blaise responded with an exaggerated, sarcastic 'awww', for which Hermione lightly smacked him upside the head, and then they left to head to class.

Draco caught them talking and laughing a few more times that day as he observed them and attempted to plot a way to convince Hermione that he really was her pen-pal. Finally, after a day of complete confusion, it all came to a head when he walked back to their shared common room after dinner and, when passing a slightly out-of-the-way alcove, saw them kissing.

Now, Hermione and Blaise were certainly not kissing, but it looked that way. They had positioned themselves just right, so that they would look like they were closer than they were when they really had a full five inches between their faces. Hermione had her hands loosely gripping the sleeves of Blaise's robes, with his hand resting gently on her waist.

Draco stormed off, decided to immediately put his plan into action.

Behind him, Hermione and Blaise broke apart with matching grins.

"I'll wait for him to come back to the common room and I'll explain it all to him. You can go back to Slytherin. Thanks for all your help, this has been hilarious." Hermione gave Blaise a quick hug and headed into the Heads' common room.

While waiting for Draco to return, a note flashed in from Damien.

_Dear Hermione,_

_I believe you are acting under a misconception. I would ask you to go to the Astronomy Tower, you might find some answers there. _

_Yours,_

_Damien_

Hermione wasn't sure what exactly Draco was planning, but she decided to play along and see what happened. It was still a few hours before curfew, so she wasn't too worried, so she started making her way up to the tower.

Once there, she looked around, not seeing Draco. Finally, her eyes lighted upon a sheet of paper, stuck to the tower wall. Picking it up she saw that it was a list of some sort, with a mix of words and check marks. The list compared Draco Malfoy with Blaise Zabini. The categories were:

_Loves Easter  
_

_Extreme Sweet Tooth  
_

_Hates Filch  
_

_Love Flying  
_

_Punctual  
_

_Loves Dark Blue  
_

_Scared of Horses  
_

_Prefers Raspberry to Strawberry  
_

Under Blaise's name there were check marks for: hates Filch, loves flying, and prefers raspberry to strawberry. Under Draco's name all of the categories were checked off.

Hermione smiled as she read over the list. That Draco would so blatantly disregard the rules of the pen-pal project, just to make sure she didn't get to close to Blaise, made her feel special. He really was a great friend. Still focused on the list, Hermione neglected to notice Draco coming in through the door, joining her atop the Astronomy Tower. When she finished reading she looked up and, caught by surprise, jumped a bit, making a quiet, startled squeak.

Draco laughed at her reaction. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just figured you would be up here by now."

Hermione smiled at him, turning to face him fully. "Yeah, I was curious to see why you needed me to come up here. This is cute, by the way." She motioned to the list in her hand.

Draco's face betrayed his surprise. "You knew? That I was Damien?"

Hermione beamed at him. "Yeah, it slowly became pretty obvious. Want to go back to our common room to talk? It's a bit breezy up here."

"Fine, but you have some explaining to do." Draco motioned for her to exit first and he followed her down the stairs.

Back in their common room, Hermione settled herself in her favorite spot on the couch, motioning for Draco to sit on the opposite end from her. Once he was seated she decided to jump right in with her explanation, grinning brightly through the whole speech.

"I figured out a little bit ago that you were the only one who could be my pen-pal. There were just too many coincidences and such. So I was a bit confused when you started pushing the idea of Blaise at me, during the dance. I almost fell for it, but he just didn't really make sense. After your note, it confirmed that you both, were Damien, and knew that I was Grace. The only logical explanation was that you were teasing me, knowing that your later letter would clear up any confusion. However, you should know me better than that. I've spent too much time with Harry and Ron not to be a bit mischievous and competitive. So I decided it might be fun to tease you back. I enlisted Blaise to help, since you'd mentioned him first. It was pretty fun, I have to say. Watching your face as you tried to figure out how it had all gone so terribly wrong was pretty funny." She gave him her best admit-it-I'm-awesome look, leaning back into the couch comfortably, waiting for him to respond.

"But what about the kissing?" Draco looked like he can hardly process what is going on and had just spouted the first thing that came to mind.

"There was no kissing." Hermione explained with a sly grin. "We just stood really close to each other and made it look like kissing to an outside party. It worked pretty well, didn't it?"

Draco blushed. Then he scowled. "I'm gonna kill Blaise" he ground out from between clenched teeth.

Hermione laughed. "I'd really rather you didn't, after he was such a good sport about it and all."

Draco just glared at her, only the slight glint in his eyes giving away his amusement. "I really wanted to pound him, thinking he was taking advantage of you. What would you have done if I'd acted on that? Were you going to let him get beat up just for a prank?"

"Come on Draco, I know you better than that. Between getting to know Draco and Damien at the same time, I knew you well enough to predict what your reaction was going to be. Blaise was worried about it before I convinced him you wouldn't attack him."

Finally, Draco let a small smile show. "All right, I'll admit it, you had me going there. I'm impressed. Does this make us even now, or should I be watching my back more carefully for a while?"

Hermione smiled at him. "Nope, we're even. Plus, now we don't have to continue writing pen-pal letters. We can just focus on Draco and Hermione and not worry about saying something that might give it all away."

"True. I hope you know what this means though." Draco adopted a calculating smirk.

"What?" Hermione's voice quivered just a bit as she looked at Draco, trying to figure out what he was up to.

"I have to teach you how to fly. You said in your letter that you don't know how to fly. As both your friend, and a Quidditch player, I feel it is my duty to instruct you in the joys of flying."

Hermione paled a bit. "That's really not necessary."

Draco just grinned back at her. "Don't worry, there's no way for you to talk me out of this, you don't have to try. Thanks to those letters I now know a lot more about you and I plan to use it. I wouldn't be a proper Slytherin if I didn't. This weekend, you and me and the Quidditch pitch. I'll have you flying circles in no time." His grin turned softer as he looked at her nervous face. "Don't worry; I would never let you fall."

Sure enough, when Saturday rolled around Draco could be seen dragging Hermione out onto the pitch, broom in hand. He had convinced Hermione to ask Harry if she could borrow his broom, since it would be much better than just using a school broom. So she had Harry's broom clutched in her hand, the hand that wasn't being held captive by Draco as he physically pulled her toward the doors leading outside.

"Ok," Draco began. "You obviously learned the absolute basics back in first year, so I won't worry about those. We'll start by having you fly a few, low, laps around this half of the pitch. I'll fly along at your side. We won't go above 4 feet for now, just until you get comfortable at that height. Sound like a plan?"

With Hermione's nod of agreement they both mounted their brooms and kicked off, Hermione a bit more timidly than Draco.

"First of all, you need to be confident. Know that if you tell the broom to do something it will. Like when you kicked off, know in your heart that the broom will hold you. Trust that it will fly and not fall. The more you are sure of yourself, the easier it will be."

They began a few slow, low laps. True to his word, Draco stayed right by her side, ready to swoop in and catch if anything happened. After a few laps Draco took them up a bit higher, and then a bit higher again. They continued this until they were flying at the usual height of Quidditch players during a game. Patiently, Draco showed her different ways to hold on to the broom to make certain moves easier or to gain better control.

"It depends what your goal is. There isn't one way that anyone can say, 'this is how you hold a broom'. If you are going for high speed, maneuverability, fine point turning, speed control, quick halts, to hold the quaffle or beater's bat, etc. They all involve different ways of holding onto the broom."

While that was a bit overwhelming for Hermione at first, Draco focused on showing her the holds most used for maneuverability and speed control, as those were most important for leisurely flying. Later in the afternoon, once Hermione was comfortable with general flying, Draco decided to change it up a bit.

"How about we bring out a quaffle and try to score for a while? I'll show you how to fly while holding the ball, and how to hold on while you throw."

"I guess," Hermione said nervously. "I'm not sure how I'll fair without both hands on the broom though."

Draco just smiled and went to get a quaffle. He worked with her on that for a while. It was a lot more difficult than just flying and Hermione struggled some. They finally decided to call it quits for the day.

The next few weeks seemed to fly by for Hermione. She had reassured Blaise that their joke had gone well and the three of them became close friends. Draco and Hermione finally received their black letters and could tell their friends that they were pen-pals. Hermione's friends had already accepted that she was friends with Draco, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Harry, Ron and Ginny were glad that at least someone knew who their pen-pal is, since they had all gotten their guesses wrong. They even asked her about what she and Draco had written about that made it clear who they were. Soon her friends were using the 'this or that' and other questions in their letters too.

Every weekend, and sometimes during the evening on weekdays, Draco worked with Hermione on her flying. He kept using the quaffle and even introduced a bludger at one point. That hadn't gone over well and he hadn't repeated the process. However, after a few weeks of practice, he did decide that they could try working with a snitch.

"But that's hardly fair." Hermione argued. "You're a seeker, how am I going to have any chance?" She gave him a pair of big, puppy dog eyes.

Draco laughed. "That doesn't matter, we won't be competing. I'm going to let the snitch loose, and then I'll just fly around, watching your flying. You have to try to find it on your own."

Hermione huffed a bit, but agreed to give it a try. Draco brought a small box with them to the pitch and, once she was in the air, opened it and let the snitch loose. It took Hermione a good portion of their time on the pitch to find it, but Draco just let her look. He knew what it felt like to catch it yourself for the very first time and he didn't want to spoil that experience for Hermione.

When she finally was able to find it, Hermione sped toward the small golden ball, snatching it right out of the air and clutching it in her hand. She spun around, looking for Draco, and gave him a huge grin. He cheered for her as she flew down to where he had landed when he saw her closing in on the snitch. She hopped of Harry's broom as she reached him and threw herself at him to give him a tight hug.

"That was so exciting! I can't believe I caught it!" She gushed, handing the snitch to Draco. He packed it back in its small box.

"I'll make sure we work with the snitch some more, that was amazing Hermione."

The headmistress had decided, with more and more students realizing who their pen-pals were, that she would instigate a new policy. She announced it one morning at breakfast.

"Students, in light of everyone getting closer to knowing who their pen-pals are, I have decided to offer a way, similar to at the dance, for you to know for sure. If you and another person believe that the two of you are pen-pals, you may send me a note, signed by both of you, asking if you are correct. You may only ask if you each think the other is their pen-pal and may only ask a maximum of once every two weeks. If you are correct, you will each receive a letter of confirmation, just like after the dance."

Students were immediately excited, a few couples had figured it out in the weeks since the dance and without being able to officially confirm it, couldn't openly talk about it. The day after this announcement several couples were confirmed. Most prominent were Lavender Brown with Terry Boot, and Neville Longbottom with Susan Bones. Neville seemed quite pleased to be able to confirm that Susan was the girl he had such a lovely on-paper friendship with, and they quickly became quite the pair.

The only other big occurrence during those weeks between the dance and Easter break was a rather unfortunate potions accident. Since becoming such good friends, and especially now that they knew they were pen-pals, Hermione and Draco had partnered a lot during potions. With both of them being such excellent students it was a good pairing. However, this meant that Neville, who Hermione often partnered with so that he could both survive the class and get a good grade, was back to melting cauldrons every day.

Hermione often felt guilty about this, so she would stop over at his table during class to give pointers and help. The professor, and everyone else, turned a blind eye to it all, since it often enough meant they could avoid injuries and noxious gases that Neville often caused.

On this particular day, however, Hermione didn't check on him soon enough. Hermione stepped over to Neville's table just as he added an ingredient. The potion immediately turned a terrible color of green and started bubbling.

"Neville, goodness, what happened?" She asked, as she quickly tried to discern what was wrong so she could correct the mistake.

Seeing her standing over the now smoky cauldron, Draco hurried over to try to help Hermione neutralize the problem. Sadly, that was just the moment when the cauldron exploded. Neville had stepped back to giver Hermione room to work without his 'help', so only Hermione and Draco were covered in the odorous goop.

The mess was quickly vanished and they were all ordered to resume their seats, as Hermione and Draco seemed perfectly unharmed. However, when Hermione tried to turn back to their desk she felt a tug. Turning, she was that she was attempting to drag Draco with her, and he was trying to regain his footing after the surprising pull. They were stuck together, much like being glued. Their connection point was, funny enough, their hips. They were, quite literally, connected at the hips.

They were immediately dismissed to go see Madame Pomphrey. Walking was a bit slow, as their forced side-by-side walking was reminiscent of a three-legged race. Suddenly, Hermione turned her head to look at Draco, a smile on her lips.

"You know, this is kind of like that question, back in one of our earlier letters. You said you'd rather be stuck to your enemy than never be able to touch the one you love. We aren't enemies, but we are certainly stuck." She laughed, gesturing to their joined hips.

Draco looks thoughtful for a second. "Yeah, it's like someone got it all backwards though. The choice wasn't supposed to be between never touching your enemy or being forever stuck to the person you…" Draco trailed off, blushing. He looked away.

Surprised, Hermione decided to let him off the hook, as he seemed suddenly so uncomfortable, and just think more about that comment later. She needed to focus on getting unstuck.

"I see what you mean. It's not exactly the same situation. Right now though, I just really want to be unstuck. I thought that was an easy question, of course I'd rather be stuck to my enemy, but now I'm not so sure. You're my friend and I'm already sick of being stuck to you. It makes walking really difficult!" She added a petulant whine to the end of her sentence.

Draco laughed. "Sick of me already? You better watch yourself, or I might just wander towards the kitchen instead of the Hospital Wing. I'm a growing guy you know, I'm always hungry. I'm also bigger than you, so you'd just have to come along." His grinned showed that he was joking, but Hermione still leaned away from him a bit, giving her enough space to punch him lightly in the shoulder.

"Don't even. We are going to see Madame Pomphrey right now, I will not miss any more classes just because you are being a complete and total…" she trailed off for a second, face scrunched up thinking, she finally settled for, "total…boy!" Draco just laughed.

"Hermione, I'm not sure you noticed, but I am a boy."

They spent the rest of their walk amicably talking and soon Madame Pomphrey had them all sorted out and back in class.


	17. Flesh Memory

Chapter 17- Flesh Memory

Over the next several weeks Draco and Hermione became an inseparable pair. Their friendship grew by leaps and bounds. Hermione got Draco a large basket of candy for Easter, since it's his favorite holiday, which he naturally shared with her.

Slowly though, the undertone of their relationship began to change. Hermione would find herself sitting in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room with Ron, Harry and Ginny, talking about what she and Draco had been up to, only to find that some things sounded less innocent and purely friend-zone when explained to others.

"Hermione, that sounds an awful lot like a date." Ginny said one evening.

Hermione looked puzzled, "How so?"

"Well, I don't know about Ron and Harry, but I don't have one on one dinners in the kitchens with just any old friend, especially as a surprise, with your favorite foods."

Harry and Ron nodded their agreements.

"But I think he just wanted to have fun, using the privileged knowledge from the letters. He remembered that I said I like hot cocoa with pickles, so that was the appetizer. Then we had berries, since he had said he would always prefer raspberries, but I prefer strawberries. We had sweet pancakes, since he has such a sweet tooth. Then we had oreos and pie for dessert, since I made him an oreo convert and he prefers pie to cake. It was just a bunch of fun, not really date like." Hermione explained.

"Well," Harry paused in thought, "what did you talk about over dinner?"

"Following with the theme, we mostly talked about the stuff we learned in the letters. WE talked about muggle books, flying, we argued about favorite spells and potions, things like that."

"I don't know, sounds pretty date like to me." Ron added in his thoughts.

Hermione threw up her hands, "Whatever, it was fun, regardless of what you call it. How are you guys doing with your pen-pals, figured them out yet?"

Harry answered first, "I'm nearly positive who mine is now, but I'll wait until it's confirmed. But I don't expect I'll be disappointed. She's a lot different on paper though, so I'm glad I got the chance to know her better this way."

"I'm not sure at all. I think she's a Slytherin, but since I don't really know any of them, I can't compare characteristics. I figure I'll just wait until McGonagall tells us who they are, I'm not worried. We get along really well, I just don't know who they are. Can't be too bad though, right?" Ron gave a shrug.

Ginny shook her head at her brother's attitude. "Well, I want to know who my pen-pal is. I'm not sure either, but unlike my lazy brother I'm really curious and hope McGonagall tells us soon. I really think I like this guys. I just hope he's someone I can get along with in real life, you know?"

Hermione nodded, "I'm sure it'll be fine. But do you really think you like this guy, as in, like-like, just from letters?"

Ginny grinned, "yeah, I do. He's really funny and sweet in the letters. We just seem to connect. Didn't you get that from Draco when you still were just writing letters?"

"I guess so. I'm happy for you."

"Ha! You just admitted, you like him, as in like-like!" Ginny jumped up and punched the air, doing a little victory dance.

Hermione blushed, "Ginny…"

"Yeah?" Ginny said, smirking.

"Shut up."

Hermione couldn't get that conversation out of her head though, and went around for the next week in a daze, finally noticing all the things about her friendship with Draco that would look weird if it was Harry or Ron.

While Hermione was having her epiphany, Professor McGonagall finally announced when the pen-pal pairs would be revealed.

"Attention students," McGonagall stood, following dinner one night. "As end of year exams are quickly approaching, the pen-pal program for the year will be wrapping up. Tomorrow evening we will have a feast in celebration of the program, during which I will announce all of the pairings. The room will be set up as a collection of many round tables, so you certainly won't sit according to house. After the big reveal please feel free to rearrange to sit with you pen-pal and get to know them in person. That is all."

The hall broke out into cheers at this. Everyone was excited to know who they had been communicating with.

Despite it only being a feast and not a ball, a decent number of students still dressed more formally that next night at dinner, hoping to impress their pen-pals. Those few pairs who already knew who their pen-pals were, sat together at the round tables, while the other students sat mostly by house, with the anticipation that they would move eventually.

The feast was delicious, but most students hardly noticed, as they waited impatiently for the Headmistress to make her announcement. Finally, the food vanished from the tables and McGonagall rose.

"Dessert will be served once everyone has had a chance to find out their pen-pal and move to sit together if they so choose. I will begin reading out the pairs. So that I can still be heard, please remain seated until all the names have been read aloud before moving."

Everyone started wiggling in their seats as McGonagall began reading her list. The most notable pairs were Seamus with Hannah Abbott, Parvati Patil with Justin Finch-Fletchly, Denis Creevey with Astoria Greengrass, Zacharias Smith with Millicent Bulstrode (Hermione secretly thought that, as the two most repugnant people in the castle, the two deserved each other), and then McGonagall got around the Hermione's friends.

"Harry Potter went through the program with the pen-pal of Luna Lovegood, Ronald Weasley went through the program with the pen-pal of Pansy Parkinson, Ginny Weasley went through the program with the pen-pal of Blaise Zabini." Hermione and the group at her table drowned out the rest of the names, as all of their friend group had been said already. Hermione turned towards Draco beside her.

"That was interesting. Has Pansy said anything to you about her pen-pal, because I know Ron had no clue who he was with. Ginny either actually."

"Yeah, she said she didn't really care, other than worrying that they would be thrown off by her being a Slytherin. She seemed to get on with them pretty well. I think it will work out. And I'm pretty sure Blaise was well and enamored with his mystery girl, so I really wouldn't worry about him and the weaslette." He smiled at Hermione, glad that their two groups were integrated even more than he thought. He'd been contemplating ways to get the two groups to interact more, since he figured Hermione was going to be a pretty permanent fixture in his life going forward.

"Good, I'm glad."

McGonagall finished reading the names and everyone started moving around. Draco and Hermione stayed were they were and let all the other come to them. It was an interesting group, that was for sure. Luna looked a bit out of place, but she certainly didn't seem to care. Harry looked over at Hermione and grinned, nodding. Clearly he had expected Luna to be his pen-pal, and Hermione was happy for him.

Dessert was served any everyone dug in with a renewed gusto while chatting with their pen-pals. The Great Hall was a sight to be seen. All around there were groups with people from different houses, all seeming to get along really well. It was a truly united group of students that returned to their dorms that night.

The reveal of the pairings had produced quite a few new couples, including Ginny and Blaise, who wasted no time in starting to date. But more than that, it created innumerable friendships, which forced different groups to interact, creating even more friendships. It had clearly been a resounding success.

At the secret urging of Blaise, who had talked about it with Ginny, Draco finally asked Hermione if she would be interested in going with him to the next Hogsmeade trip. Hermione gladly accepted. Not much really changed in their relationship once they finally started dating, proving that Hermione's friends had been correct, they really had been practically dating before.

They still fought like grims and kneazles sometimes, but that was almost half the fun. Dating meant you got more fun from making up after a fight, which Draco mercilessly took advantage of.

"Hermione, can I ask you a question?" They were sitting against a tree by the lake one afternoon, just relaxing. Ginny and Blaise were off somewhere snogging, and surprisingly enough, Ron and Pansy weren't much better. Once they'd gotten over the shock they had found that they really worked well together. Harry and Luna were much more discreet, generally wandering off together to look for flitterputs and other creatures, returning hours later with twigs in their hair. But considering what Luna usually did when alone, it wasn't entirely clear if things of a salacious actually occurred to cause the twigs.

"You just did, but you can certainly ask another." Hermione tilted her head to look over at him.

"Would you rather be able to read minds or tell the future? And what is your oldest possession?" Draco said with a wide grin.

Hermione laughed. "This again? I thought we were done with these now that we aren't writing anymore letters."

Draco just smiled. "I'll never be done getting to know you."

Hermione blushed, but answered. "I'd rather read minds. I think Trelawney has put me off of anything related to Divination. And I have a music box that was my grandmother's when she was a little girl. You?

"I would rather tell the future. There are some questions I'd love to know the answer to before decided whether or not to ask them. But only if the future can be changed. And I have a book that's been in the Malfoy family for hundreds of years. It is self-updating with the family history. It passes down whenever a new heir is born, so it technically belongs to me. Your turn to ask the question."

They continued on with the questions well into the evening.

The end of the years passed in a blur for all the seventh years. They hoped they'd done well, but they could hardly remember taking them, with the rush of graduation preparation.

Whether they wanted it to or not, graduation day finally arrived. As the whole school had expected, Hermione was Valedictorian. She spent the whole day of graduation rushing around to make sure everyone was where they needed to be and everything would go smoothly. She was told to relax on more than one occasion, but everyone was grateful for her mothering.

Thanks in no small part to her mothering, the seventh years' graduation ceremony went off without a hitch. Hermione and Draco had written a speech together, as Head Boy and Girl, and spoke in a fashion reminiscent of the Weasley twins, alternating every few sentences. They spoke of the amazing progress towards true inter-house unity that had been made that year. They spoke of the pumpkin carving contest, the Valentine's Day festivities, the pen-pal program, and all of the wonderful accomplishments of the graduating class. There were more than a few damp eyes by the end when they took their seats.

"I present to all parents, teachers, students and guests, the Hogwarts graduating class." The Headmistress stepped down from the stage to the tumultuous applause of the audience as the graduates tossed their hats in the air. The hats had been charmed to turn into fireworks when tossed, so there was quite the colorful display.

Draco, Hermione, and all their friends gathered out on the Quidditch pitch for a last picnic before they were scheduled to leave the school on the train for the last time. Sitting amongst all their friends, Draco turned to Hermione.

"Hermione, can I ask you a question?" This had become so typical that no one even stopped their own conversations and Hermione just grinned at Draco.

"You just did, but you may certainly ask another." Hermione gave her standard reply.

Rather than ask a question right away though, Draco pulled something out of his pocket. It was a snitch. He let it loose, smiling at Hermione and saying 'catch'. After all the times flying with Draco, it was almost instinct for Hermione to reach up and snatch the snitch out of the air. But this time, as she closed her fist around it and pulled it down to her lap, she heard a 'click' and felt the snitch move.

Looking down she gasped. The snitch lay open in her palm, a gleaming diamond ring sitting inside of the golden ball. She looked back up at Draco.

"Would you rather marry me, or not?" Draco smiled at her nervously.

Clutching the snitch, and ring, tightly in her hand, Hermione threw her arms around Draco, hugging him.

"I would definitely rather marry you!" She kissed him, hearing the others finally realize what was going on and start clapping and cat-calling.

When she finally pulled away Draco picked up the ring and slipped in on her finger.

"Draco, how did you do that though? I've never heard of snitches opening when you catch them."

Draco grinned at her. "This is the first snitch you ever caught. All the other times we used a standard snitch from the Quidditch closet. But that first time, I used a brand new one. So it remembers your hand from when you caught it, and opens only for you now."

"But how?" Hermione still looked puzzled.

Draco lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss in to her palm.

"Snitches have flesh memory."

The End.

**AN: That's the end of the journey. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please review to let me know what you thought. There won't be a sequel. Thanks for sticking with me through it. **


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